The Plumbline

Drift happens - little by little - almost without ever noticing just how far off-course you have gone. Isaiah is an Old Testament prophet sent to Israel to encounter them for their "drift" - having become "like the other nations". If you have never really read the entire message of Isaiah, you will have missed special words such as:  Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be white as snow. If they are red as crimson, they will become like wool . (1:18)  Then they will beat their swords into iron plows and their spears into pruning tools. Nation will not take up sword against nation; they will no longer learn how to make war . (2:4)  Doom to those who call evil good and good evil, who present darkness as light and light as darkness, who make bitterness sweet and sweetness bitter. (5:20) The list could go on and on, but I would like to focus us on one of the latter chapters of this great book. There we find these words:  S till, God, you are our ...

A potter is one who fashions clay into vessels of purposeful use.   Some may be fashioned into great works of beauty, such as for display and placed in positions of honor perhaps a little more than others.  Others may be fashioned into vessels of great service, such as those which allow water to be carried from a well back to the home.  Still others may be fashioned into the vessels which will withstand great heat in the scorching ovens.  Each has a purpose - each fulfills the purpose for which it was created.  Each has been created by the hand of the potter - with his intention fully revealed in how he creates each vessel.  In the "fashioning", he takes great care to create what he envisions for each vessel - knowing the purpose for which he is creating it.  If he knows the purpose of each vessel, then what he "puts into" each vessel in his creative power is also what he expects to "get out" of each each of these vessels. You, Lord, are our Fathe...