“Who ARE you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall the ‘formed’ say to the ‘Former’, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ Doesn’t the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?” Romans 9:20-21
Gracious Father, I’ll be pondering the mystery and mercy of your sovereignty until the Day you glorify us. Jesus’ death for us on the cross wasn’t an accident, afterthought, plan B, or the redeeming of a good-story-gone-bad (Acts 2:23-24). We have incomparable and immeasurable peace from this supreme demonstration of your sovereignty. Hallelujah, and thank you.
But as much as I celebrate and find comfort in the sovereignty of Jesus’ cross, why do I struggle with your decrees and “doings” elsewhere? Why do I want to reverse rolls and make me the potter and treat you like pliable clay? Why do I prefer a Play-Doh or Gumby God instead of a sovereign Father?
I have zero issue with you setting up and sitting down presidents, premiers and potentates—usually, that is. But when it comes to things that contradict my sensibilities, timeframe, and druthers, I can murmur like Israel in the wilderness—though I don’t live in anything remotely close to a “wilderness-life.”
Father, give me joy in simply being Gospel-pottery, with the treasure of Jesus inhabiting this weak jar of clay. I’d much rather you make “all things new” than make sense of all things to me. You are the Potter who’s redeeming an every-nation family that will populate the new heaven and new earth. Let me be humble, grateful and content with my place in that story. You really DO do all things well. You actually ARE working in all things for our good. So Very Amen.