[CrimsonTide4]

Being Mr. History, I've made sure our family has visited our share of Colonial restorations. We step back in history and we see men in their tricorn hats, ladies in their lace caps, and a potter. There's always a potter, and they're intriguing to watch, skillfully shaping that blob of clay. Now leave it to me to think about what it might feel like to be the clay. First, you get pushed and squeezed and poked all over the place. Then the potter takes you for a spin, and you're going around in these endless circles. The wheel stops; you're saying, "Man, sure glad that's over." Then suddenly you're in an oven - at 2,200 degrees! When you're just about cooked, the potter pulls you out - only to put you back in a little later! If you're the potter's clay, you've got to be thinking, "Why are you doing this to me?"

Strangely, I recognize a lot of those "clay" feelings! "God, why do you have me spinning around like this? Why are you squeezing me this way? Why are you subjecting me to this intense heat?"

Some of the answers are found in our word for today from the Word of God, Romans 8:28-29. We do verse 28 a lot, but you have to keep it with verse 29 to get the whole picture. "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." Now, if you've got some apparently "not good" stuff going on in your life right now, you may need a reminder as to what "His purpose" is.

Verse 29: "For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son." What's the "good thing" Jesus is using "all things" in your life for? Well, the highest good He can accomplish in any life. You say, "Oh, to make me happy?" No, that's not the highest good for your life. It's for you to become more and more like Jesus.

We're God's clay. The mold is Jesus. And God designed you to be, through the uniqueness of your own personality and gifts, a replica of His Son.

One of life's most frequently asked questions is, "Why, God?" The only answer that fits all situations is this: This can make you more like Jesus than you've ever been. What happens in your life is either something your Heavenly Father sends or He allows. But in either case, He only allows into your life what can make you more valuable, more Christ-like.

You can't learn to love like Jesus unless there's someone in your life who's hard to love. You can't learn His sensitivity without hurting. You can't be Jesus-patient without having to wait or to put up with something difficult or someone difficult. You can't learn joy without circumstances that you have to rise above. You can't learn peace without some pressure. You can't learn faith without needs that are bigger than your ability to ever meet them.

But unlike clay, you choose whether the Potter's beautiful intentions are realized. If you forget the Potter's goal, you can become desperate, bitter, hard, and all self-absorbed. Or you can let Him use it for the ultimate good. If you're going to get the pain, you might as well get the point! And that is to make you more like Jesus.

The oven and the wheel are God's tools to transform us blobs of clay into His masterpieces!