"I Made It. I Can Fix It."

The central question of this episode is deceptively simple: what does it mean to be broken in a way that cannot be repaired? The answer, drawn from a single vivid story, reframes the entire relationship between human failure and divine power.

The episode opens in Jeremiah 1 and 18, where the Lord tells Jeremiah he knew him before birth, then sends him to watch a potter at work. When the potter's vessel becomes marred, he simply restarts and remakes it. The Lord's question follows: "Can I not do with you as this potter?" The clay has no say in whether it can be fixed. The potter decides.

That Old Testament image becomes flesh in a story told by Theodore Tuttle, a general authority who found himself driving Elder Boyd K. Packer to an assignment. Elder Packer had a lifelong hobby of carving wooden birds—sometimes taking a full year to complete a single piece, measuring feathers, studying colors, carving settings. He described it as restful. When he felt frustrated, his wife would say, "Go carve a bird."

On this particular drive, Elder Tuttle had placed one of the carvings on the back seat. At an intersection, he slammed on the brakes. The carving tipped forward, upside down, onto the floor. It broke into pieces.