JESSCOTT
MUSIC MINISTRIES
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 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
and 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, 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 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.
