December 30, 2021

Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. – Isaiah 64:8

We are saying goodbye to 2021 and looking forward to 2022. A new year provides great hope, and it is filled with anticipation good possibility. A new year always provides an opportunity for us to consider who we are and who we would like to become. We set goals and resolve to start new habits and become something better in the next year.

Our faith is anchored in the promise that God is constantly working to make us a new creation. God is working, through grace, to help us remove the old and to put on the new. It is the work of grace that transforms us into the people God originally intended us to be. This is a long process, but the work of grace wrestles with us to shape us into the very image of God’s love.

One of the best descriptions of the process of grace, found in the Bible, is that of a potter working with clay. When the potter works with clay, to create a beautiful piece of art, it is a long and challenging process. The potter shapes and re-shapes the formless clay. It is placed on a spinning wheel and put through a demanding process before it reaches the ultimate shape and purpose. God works in this way. God is potter and we are the clay.

As we approach the new year, I hope we will consider the great gift of God’s grace that makes us into a new creation. This is the hope we have as a people of faith. We do not have to be the people we are today. We have been created with purpose, but our God, who has a vision for who we have placed us on the potter’s wheel. God is willing to work to make us a new creation. God is love and God’s love and grace is the force that will shape us into a new thing this year. For 2022 I chose to willingly place myself in the hands of the Potter. I look forward to what God will do to shape us into a people who will embody love and hope for God’s beautiful world.

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10)

Rev. Keith King, Pastor of Worship