Thou Art the Potter

Elder Isaac K. Morrison told a heart-wrenching story from his family in the most recent general conference. He related, “One weekend during my service as a stake president, we experienced perhaps the worst trial parents can face. Our family returned from a Church activity and gathered for lunch. Then our three boys went out within our compound to play. My wife felt repeated impressions that something might be wrong. She asked me to check on the children while we were washing the dishes. I felt they were safe since we could hear their voices of excitement from their play. When we both finally went to check on our sons, to our dismay we found little 18-month-old Kenneth helpless in a bucket of water, unseen by his brothers. We rushed him to the hospital, but all attempts to revive him proved futile.” I was struck by what he said about what happened afterwards: “My wife never blamed me for not responding to her promptings…. My wife and I learned specific lessons from our loss. We came to feel united and bound by our temple covenants; we know we can claim Kenneth as ours in the next world because he was born in the covenant.” The fact that she never blamed him and that the experience brought them closer together instead of further apart is a testament to their faith and trust in the Lord through such a tragic experience. They were able to say, it seems, what Adelaide Pollard said in her famous hymn, “Have Thine own way, Lord, Have Thine own way; Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.”   

            The words to that hymn were inspired by these words of Jeremiah: “I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel” (Jeremiah 18:3-6). We should see ourselves as clay in the potter’s hand, trusting that he will do as it seems good to Him, even if we feel that we have been marred. Isaiah expressed the same idea in these words: “But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand” (Isaiah 64:8). In his epistle to the Romans Paul also used similar language: “O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?” (Romans 9:20-21) If we are to make it through the terrible difficulties and that which to mortal understanding seems incomprehensible in this life, we must be able to humbly look to the Lord knowing that the Potter knows what He is doing with the clay. Nephi, paraphrasing Isaiah, also referred to a potter in this condemnation of the wicked: “And wo unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord! And their works are in the dark; and they say: Who seeth us, and who knoweth us? And they also say: Surely, your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay. But behold, I will show unto them, saith the Lord of Hosts, that I know all their works. For shall the work say of him that made it, he made me not? Or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, he had no understanding?” (2 Nephi 27:27) The wicked condemn the Lord who, they say, turns things upside down and they view His work as useless clay from the potter. But how can we look to Him that has made us and say that He has no understanding? All these passages urge us to humbly see our correct relationship with the Lord and quietly submit to the work of the Potter’s hand. As we exercise faith and trust in Him, He will help us and mold us into vessel that He wants us to become. Elder Morrison summarized his message with these words: “I testify that we grow in our discipleship when we exercise faith in the Lord during difficult times. As we do so, He will mercifully strengthen us and help us carry our burdens.”