The Clay and the Potter

In the last general conference Elder Richard J. Maynes told a story about Elder Aoba in Japan who taught his local youth group about making pottery.  Elder Maynes described how the youth at first tried to make pottery with the clay but were unable to, but ultimately they were taught how to do it by centering the clay perfectly on the wheel.  He likened that to how we need to be centered in “Jesus Christ and his gospel” in order to spiritually survive in our world.  Like the clay, as we are centered in the gospel, the Savior can then “mold us into who we need to be in order to return to His and Heavenly Father’s presence in the celestial kingdom” (see here).  He quoted one of my favorite scriptures from Isaiah, “But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou art our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand” (Isaiah 64:8).  I think it was then no coincidence that in the beginning of the very next talk in that session of conference, Sister Neill F. Marriot quoted these words of a hymn, “Have Thine own way Lord! Have Thine own way! Thou art the Potter; I am the clay” (see here).  These words are very familiar to me because they are quoted frequently in a book I read long ago, “I Am the Clay” by Chaim Potok.  If we would have this kind of double witness in general conference, then surely this principle of trusting the divine Potter is of paramount importance for us.  Do we really have the faith to live as clay in the divine Potter’s hands?  

                To believe that we are clay in the Potter’s hands means that whatever trials come to us in life we will accept them in faith with pure trust in the Lord.  Instead of turning us away from God they will turn us to Him who is shaping us.  It means having the attitude of Job, who said after losing just about everything, “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21).  Believing that we are the clay means having the humility of Abraham who followed the incomprehensible direction from the Lord, went to Mount Moriah and “built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood” (Genesis 22:9).  It means having the attitude of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego who with the prospect of being burned to death said to King Nebuchadnezzar, “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace… But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods” (Daniel 3:17-18).  This is the same attitude that Nephi had as he was tied up, starving, and suffering badly on the ship: “Nevertheless, I did look unto my God, and I did praise him all the day long; and I did not murmur against the Lord because of mine afflictions” (1 Nephi 18:16).  And of course, the Savior was the perfect example of being the Clay in the Potter’s hands as He said under the most incomprehensible suffering, “Nevertheless, not as I will but as thou wilt” (Matt. 26:39).   

                C.S. Lewis wrote, “It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong and sound as long as you are merely using it to cord a box. But suppose you had to hang by that rope over a precipice. Wouldn't you then first discover how much you really trusted it?” (see here)  To believe that we are clay in the hands of the divine Potter, we have to be able to have that kind of life-saving trust in the Lord.  In short, we must be able to say as Nephi, “O Lord, I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever” (2 Nephi 4:34).