Wheaton College - Tower Yearbook (Wheaton, IL)

Page 17 text:

Batter my heart, three personed Godg for You As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mendg That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new. from Sonnet 14 John Donne sb

Page 16 text:

G od Our Craftsman When God is the Potter of our lives His workings grow even more in- dividual. He knows the material from which He formed each of us, and the functions in which we fit best. Through our learning at Wheaton and elsewhere He begins to shape us to that end. Whether the end is a career, a position, or an area of influence, rest assured of its importance. In Creation and Fall, a lecture on Genesis, Dietrich Bonhoeffer talks about molding. Yahweh shapes man with his own hands. This ex- presses two things. First, the bodily nearness of the Creator to the creature, that it is really he who makes me-man-with his own handsq his concern, his thought for me, his nearness to me. And secondly there is his authority, the absolute superiority in which he shapes and creates me and in which I worship him. Oddly enough, clay may have a will of its own. When pliant, we flow under the Potter's hands, and God has easy molding with us. If we in- sist on becoming a butter dish rather than a sugar bowl, He must take us off the wheel and knead some more. God holds the owner's manual in His hand as he watches us, and us- ing our common sense we must sub- mit to His will. The usefulness to Him makes it all worthwhile.

Page 18 text:

Our Father, Our Master Designer Gordon Fee, in fall quarter Special Services, said, I love my children because they're mine. As our Father, God does not wait for the completion of our becoming to love us. And more than that, He pronounces us perfect, and uses us. In some marvelous way God has pleasure and profit from our buds, green fruit, or half-formed clay. Each student at Wheaton will grow more into his unique role of-prayer partner, astrophysicist, poet, and you- name-it! Like snowflakes we each have a different pattern. Some day fruition will come. All imperfections removed, the vessel will receive the final polish. The in- strument will fully become that which it was created and recreated to be. And we shall be like Him. Images and metaphors fail here, in that the end product attracts all the glory even when one stresses the amazing process of Christian growth. Each moment that we grow to final perfection we are perfect for God's present purposes. It is a paradox and mystery: becoming. Don't forget the i-n-gf,