Potter's Hand

Eight weeks ago, we started a journey that would forever change our lives. I don’t know if it is possible to share the range of emotions we went through as we packed up our lives and prepared to move to Brazil. As the day of our departure approached, we were tired and stressed with making sure all the countless details that needed attention were handled. Yet we were excited about what lied ahead for us and greatly anticipated how God would use us in this new land.

The day of our departure was horrible. Saying goodbye to our family and friends could only be compared to saying goodbye to a loved one that had passed away. I will never forget kissing my daughter and telling her how much I loved her. I thought my heart was going to explode. It is even hard emotionally to think on that situation still today. As our plane taxied down the runway, I remembered thinking that when these wheels leave the ground, it will be many months or even years, before I will touch American soil again.

I share this, not solicit any feelings of pity, but to help everyone understand that the call of God is sure and His grace is always sufficient to get a person through all that they have to endure. God will never give us more than we can handle and He proves to us, over and over again, that He will never leave us nor forsake us.

These events over the past weeks, while they have been hard to endure, are yet another phase in our spiritual growth. They are a continuation of us allowing God to shape our lives into vessels that He can use to His glory and honor. I know that every Christian is capable of being a vessel that God can use to His glory, but to do so, they have to be willing to be molded into the vessel that He needs. My prayer is that everyone who reads this article ponders the words found in Jeremiah 18:1-4:

The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Then 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.

If God is truly the Potter and we the clay, then we have to be able to be molded and shaped into the vessel that God wants us to be. Our current vessels are marred with sin and it takes the shaping of God’s word and the Holy Spirit, to make us vessels that God can use. Here are five truths about making pottery from which we can learn biblical truths:

1. Clay has the potential of being fashioned into something beautiful and useful and the master potter can see the potential in a lump of clay.
2. Clay must have the touch of the potter in order to be shaped into something useful. Without his touch, the clay will never be all that it has the potential to be.
3. When the clay is resistant, the potter spends more time with it and applies more pressure to mold it into something pleasing and useful.
4. Clay that won’t mold to the potters touch or that becomes too hard to be molded is just thrown away. That is why it is important that for the potter to apply water and pressure to clay, in order to keep it moldable.
5. After a piece of pottery has been formed into a vessel and dried completely, it must be put to the fire in order to achieve the end result…a vessel that is “meet for the master’s use,” II Timothy 2:21. Without the chemical transformation that occurs through firing process, an uncooked vessel will dissolve back into mud once it comes in contact with water.

There is so much we can learn from the potter’s clay and just allowing ourselves to be molded by the hand of God. Far too often, Christians will sell themselves short by saying all that they cannot do. “I could never share my testimony”, “I could never lead someone to the Lord”, “I could never teach a class”, “I could never speak in front of a group”, “I could never be a missionary”, I could never be a pastor”. Have you ever said these things? I know that I have, but over time God has proved to me that by His power and might that “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me,” Philippians 4:13.

God’s call is different for each of us, but in order for us to fulfill that call, then we must allow God to mold us into the vessel that He wants us to be. Are you willing to let him do so? Change is never easy and it requires us to step outside of our comfort zone. Sometimes change will even hurt, but where would we be today, if all the martyrs who gave their lives over the past 2000 years, decided that their comfortable life was more important than God’s word?

So, while the changes we are going through are tough for us right now, I find encouragement and hope in knowing that our affliction is but mild compared to so many other Christians….past, present and future. We love this field and the people and we know that we are where God wants us to be. The need for the gospel is great and there is much work to do, so please pray for us that God will give us the strength, direction, and perseverance to fulfill the plan that He has for us here in Brazil.

God Bless you!


The Hatmans
Missionaries to Canoas Brazil