The Tea Cup

I just got this in an E-mail............and I simply must share it:

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 tea-cups . 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,; suddenly 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, he opened the door . He carefully 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."

The moral of this story is this:

God knows what He's doing [ for each of us ]. He is the potter , and we are His clay. He will mould us and make us, and expose us to just enough pressures of just the right kinds that we may be made into a flawless piece of work to fulfill His 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 ", try this.... Brew a cup of of your favorite tea in your prettiest tea cup, sit down and think on this story and then, have a little talk with the Potter .