One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?” Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use? (Romans 9: 19-21)
I was watching an amazing worship leader in a video recently – his body slumped in a wheelchair through illness but with a voice like an angel. He was singing about how free he was in Jesus. It made me think of the time I stood at the back of a church hall with others in wheelchairs, and watched a girl at the front give a testimony about how God healed the side of her forefinger. We don’t understand these things: why healing happens or not to different people.
To an atheist or agnostic, it seems cruel that some people seem to suffer more than others. But, as Romans 9 reveals, God is a potter and uses clay for different purposes. The name of the first man, Adam, means ‘from the Earth’. And we should always remember that humans are compressed dust, lit up by the Holy Spirit. We don’t comprehend the mystery of it all but there is a divine purpose in the clay we wear, adorned as we are by The Father of the heavenly lights.
“We have everybody standing on their rights but no one standing on kindness” – I will never forget the wise words of apostolic leader Gerald Coates to me, many years ago. The second most important purpose of our clay is to show kindness. The first direction, of course: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul”, drives the second. There’s so much in our culture driving people to stand on ‘rights’ but not so much kindness. Look at the headlines of videos on YouTube depicting debates between Christians and atheists. We observe lots of rebuttals, exposing and humbling opponents – but no one speaking up for kindness. And yet this is the second command of Christ: “love one another as I have loved you.”
If Christians engaged less with trying to trounce atheists, and more involved in loving the lost, we could see more people come to know the Creator for themselves. Don’t throw your pearls in front of pigs, the Bible sternly warns, but it also adds that the harvest is plentiful (Matthew 9:37) to gather the lost, lame, hungry and humble – but the workers are tragically few: “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.” (Matthew 25)
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