Douglas Hoy, Conference Disaster Response Coordinator
I remember attending the Pennsylvania Farm Show a few years ago and viewing the butter sculpture on display in the Main Hall. I was always amazed at how much time and effort went into creating these dairy displays. The sculpture for the 2023 annual show took fourteen days to create and the sculptors spent that time creating their masterpiece in an enclosure cooled to a temperature between 50 and 60 degrees. It’s quite a contrast to the artists at outdoor festivals whom I’ve watched create ice or wood sculptures in a fraction of that time, in very different conditions, using some very rudimentary tools. In both instances, the result was a wonderful piece of art.
God works in much the same way. Sometimes it takes Him years to sculpt us into a masterpiece. He pulls away the layers slowly and methodically to give us our spiritual shape. Other times, He is very capable of transforming our lives overnight. The environments in which He finds us can be varied. Yet, like the sculptor, God knows exactly what His design plans are and creates us with purpose. In His time and through His effort, we are individually handcrafted and uniquely made.
And, Isaiah 64:8 reinforces this. “But now, O LORD, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our potter; and all of us are the work of Your hand.”
As God works in us, we need to be open to His guiding and leading. And, like the clay used by the potter, we need to have some water…Living Water…to make us pliable and shape-able. We also need to be centered on the Master Potter’s wheel, spending time in scripture so we don’t start to wobble and crumble when life starts to turn.
Did you know that, after the Farm Show is over, the butter from the sculptures is recycled…used for another purpose? These works of art, and others like them at fairs across the nation, are used to produce soap, animal feed, tires, and renewable energy. We, as God’s masterpieces, are transformed from our old lives into something new that is not intended to just sit on a pedestal. He created us for a purpose.
In her article “The Potter and the Clay – Bible Lessons on How God Molds Us,” Diane Shirlaw-Ferreira explains that God is a very skilled potter. “He took a shepherd boy and molded him into a King. He took a grumbling fisherman and molded him a leader of the Church. He took a Hebrew who was ‘dull of speech’ and molded him into the leader of a nation. And most of all, He molded Himself into human form, the form of an infant, a baby lying in hay in a manger; to set the captives free; to give us eternal salvation!”
Imagine yourself as a lump of clay, sitting on the table, and allowing God to transform you—making you into His masterpiece. What is He preparing you for? Is it a children’s ministry in your church? Are you being shaped to share your musical talents during worship? Or, maybe you are being sculpted to be a caring, Christian presence in someone’s life as they recover from a disaster in their life. Whatever it is, remember, you are God’s masterpiece. “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10). Your heart, body, and mind were formed and shaped into something He can use for His glory. And, you were “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14) to accomplish His plan in your daily life.
