Here’s a
little story I picked up somewhere along the way.
God bless,
Pastor Thom
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There was a
couple who used to go to
As the lady
handed the cup to them, 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. 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 though. But after I cooled he picked
me up and he brushed and painted me all over.
The fumes were horrible. I though
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 into the oven. Only it was not like the first time. 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. I
wondered, ‘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 in 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 would have never hardened. You would
not have had any color in your life. If
I hadn't put you back in the oven a second time, 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.’”
God knows
what He is doing in 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 your prettiest tea cup, sit down, and have a
little talk with the Potter…
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