Romans 9:14–24 presents one of Scripture’s most humbling truths: God is the Potter, and we are the clay. Paul wrestles with the mystery of God’s sovereignty and justice — the Creator’s divine right to shape His creation according to His perfect purpose. Like Jeremiah at the potter’s house, we may struggle to understand why clay is molded, broken, and remade. Yet this image is not one of cruelty, but of mercy. The miracle lies in the fact that the Potter chooses to touch the clay at all.

God’s ways are higher than ours. Just as He raised up Pharaoh to display His power and glory, He uses all circumstances, even rebellion and resistance, to magnify His name. His justice and mercy flow together perfectly, never compromised, never weakened. The clay has no claim over the hands that shape it, yet in those hands, God performs a miracle. From the same lump of earth, He fashions vessels of wrath and vessels of mercy, not by material, but by the Maker’s touch.

Through grace, those who trust in Christ become vessels of mercy, prepared beforehand for eternal life and molded for His glory. This passage calls us to surrender to the Potter’s hands, trusting His shaping even when pressed, cracked, or remade. The miracle of the mud is that God transforms the ordinary, lifeless, and unclean into something glorious, eternal, and reflective of His image. How might you allow the Potter to shape your life for His eternal purposes today?