THE STORY OF THE TEACUP

 

Webmaster's note: This story was sent by e-mail from a friend. I have no idea of the author's name, but the story is so good that I just had to put it on our web site. Enjoy it and remember it!

There was a couple who used to go to 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, suddenly the teacup spoke, "You don't
understand." It said, "I have not always been a teacup. 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
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 th en 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 be cause 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 mold 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.... steep a cup of your favorite herb tea in your
prettiest tea cup, sit down and think on this story and then, have a
little talk with the Potter.