There was a couple who took a trip to England to shop in a beautiful antique
store 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. 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 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, 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 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.
Brew a cup of your favorite tea in a pretty
tea cup, sit down and think on this story and then, have a little talk with
the Potter and praise Him and thank Him.
Friendship isn't about whom you have known the longest....
but about who came and never left your side
~ Author Unknown ~
This was a story I received in an E-mail.
(Thank you Dot for sharing)
Midi Playing: The Potter's Hand
