A Piece Of Clay

Read Isaiah 45:6-13

Jon held the headless clay animal in his hand. “Look, Mom!” he wailed. “How can I take this to school without a head?” He opened his other hand slowly. In it was a clump of deformed clay, hard and crusty. “This was going to be his head,” he mumbled. “I forgot to put it back in the container!”

“I’m sorry, Jon,” said Mom, “but it’s too late to do anything about it now. It’s time you hop into bed—you need your rest.”

“My project is due tomorrow, so now all this work was for nothing!” Jon said with a groan. He dropped the materials onto his dresser, pulled back his covers, and slid beneath the sheets.

Mom glanced at the Bible that lay on Jon’s dresser next to the school project. “Do you still read your Bible before you go to sleep?” she asked.

Jon sighed. “Sometimes,” he said, “but I’ve been so busy lately. Besides, I don’t understand it very well.” He pulled the covers up to his chin. “Do you think there’s much point in kids reading it?” he asked. “Wouldn’t it be better to wait till I’m older and can understand it better?”

Mom picked up the hardened lump of clay. She held it out toward Jon. “We’re a lot like this clay,” she said.

“We are?” asked Jon.

Mom nodded. “The Bible compares us to clay that God can shape,” she said. “But if we want God to shape us, we need to stay pliable. One way to do that is to spend time with his Word—the Bible.”

Jon looked down at the hardened clay. “So if I wait till I’m older to start reading my Bible, I might get hard—sort of like this clay,” he said.

“That could happen,” Mom agreed. “Older people who have kept their distance from God often seem more hardened and less open to God’s shaping.”

“Well . . . will you hand me my Bible then?” said Jon. “I don’t like this hard old stuff.”

How about you?

Are you willing to be shaped by God’s hand? Do you regularly read the Bible and pray for the Holy Spirit to help you understand what it says? Nothing is more important than spending time with God each day to allow him to shape you into the person he wants you to be.

Memorize:

“As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand.” Jeremiah 18:6