The Tea Cup

The Tea Cup

There was a couple who used to go England to shop in a beautiful antique
store. This trip was to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. They both
liked antiques and pottery, and especially teacups.

Spotting an exceptional cup, they asked, "May we see that? We've never seen
a cup quite so beautiful."

As the lady handed it to them, the tea cup spoke. "You don't understand," it
said, "I have not always been a tea cup. There was a time when I was just a
lump of red clay. My master took me and rolled me pounded and patted me over
and over and I yelled out, "Don't do that. I don't like it! Let me alone,"
but he only smiled, and gently said, "Not yet!'

"Then. WHAM! I was placed on a spinning wheel and suddenly I was spun around
and around and around. 'Stop it! I'm getting so dizzy! I'm going to be
sick!', I screamed. But the master only nodded and said, quietly, "Not yet."

"He spun me and poked and prodded and bent me out of shape to suit himself
and then....then he put me in the oven. I never felt such heat. I yelled and
knocked and pounded at the door. "Help! Get me out of here!" I could see him
through the opening and I could read his lips as he shook his head from side
to side, "Not yet." "When I thought I couldn't bear it another minute, the
door opened. He carefull y took me out and put me on the shelf, and I began
to cool. 'Oh, that felt so good! Ah, this is much better,' I thought. But,
after I cooled he picked me up and he brushed and painted me all over. The
fumes were horrible. I thought I would gag. 'Oh, please; stop it, stop it!!'
I cried. He only shook his head and said. "Not yet!"

"Then suddenly he put me back in to the oven. Only it was not like the first
one. This was twice as hot and I just knew I would suffocate. I begged. I
pleaded. I screamed. I cried. I was convinced I would never make it. I was
ready to give up."

"Just then the door opened and he took me out and again placed me on the
shelf, where I cooled and waited and waited, wondering, What's he going to
do to me next? An hour later he handed me a mirror and said "Look at
yourself." And I did.

"I said, That's not me; that couldn't be me. It's beautiful. I'm beautiful!"

"Quietly he spoke: "I want you to remember, then," he said, "I know it hurt
to be rolled and pounded and patted, but had I just left you alone, you'd
have dried up. I know it made you dizzy to spin around on the wheel, but if
I had stopped, you would have crumbled. I know it hurt and it was hot and
disagreeable in the oven, but if I hadn't put you there, you would have
cracked. I know the fumes were bad when I brushed and painted you all over,
but if I hadn't done that, you never would have hardened. You would not have
had any color in your life. If I hadn't put you back in that second oven,
you wouldn't have survived for long because the hardness would not have
held. Now you are a finished product. Now you are what I had in mind when I
first began with you.'"

God knows the potential in each of us. God is the potter, and we are the
clay. We will be molded and exposed to many pressures as we become the flawless piece of work to fulfill God's good, pleasing and perfect will.

So when life seems hard, and you are being pounded and patted and pushed
almost beyond endurance; when your world seems to be spinning out of
control; when you feel like you are in a fiery furnace of trials; when life
seems to "stink ink", try this:

Brew a cup of your favorite tea in your prettiest tea cup, sit down, and
have a little talk with the Potter.