The Work of His Hand

“Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.”

Isaiah 64:8

Both children were sick. The baby came down with it first, and for her the virus came in the form of a very high fever that lasted for 3 days, while the 2 year old had a low grade fever and was a sniffly, sneezy mess. My husband was working long hours at the hospital, and I was largely left on my own to care for our 2 sick babies. Days were long, nights were short, and my patience was wearing thin from the lack of sleep and from fighting the bug myself. “Lord, please, PLEASE, give us all a good night’s rest tonight, and heal my babies from this illness,” I would pray. It seemed as though God had other plans. Clearly I had something to learn from this difficult time.

When we become parents, it is our hope that we can teach our children the things they need to know to be successful in life. We hope that we can help to shape and mold them to be servants of Christ. What I didn’t realize was how much my children would be teaching me! Have you ever seen a potter at work? Sometimes he beats and kneads the clay, while other times he hardly touches it as the clay takes shape. So many times I have been the clay in God’s hand as He has squished me and squashed me through my experiences as a mom in order to turn me into something useful for His kingdom. God is using my children to teach me more about His love for us. He is using them to work on my areas of weakness, which have now become so clear through this vocation of mothering. There are times when I feel like I’ve been beaten up and times that I didn’t even realize the work He was doing until it was already taking shape.

Parenting is hard. Really hard at times, but it is also such a beautiful picture of God’s love for us and likely the closest thing we will experience to that on this side of Heaven. During the difficult times, we can rest in the fact that God is using those struggles to shape us and mold us unto the disciples He wants us to be.

Father, We can thank you for the challenges we face as parents because we know that you are using them for Your good. We also thank you for all of the wonderful times we have with our children because it reminds us of how much You love us. Most of all, we thank you for sending Your only Son to save us from our sins so that we may have eternal life with You. Amen.

To listen to, "You Are The Potter, We Are The Clay," the sermon that inspired this post, Click Here.