The Tea Cup......

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The Tea Cup......

Love this story or not, you will not be able to have tea in a tea cup again

without thinking of this.

 

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 he 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(will protect us by his hands till we become a finished product), 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 your prettiest tea cup, sit down and think on

this story and then, have a little talk with the 'Potter'. . .you'll be glad you

did

 

love and light

suja