Church of the Nazarene

TEACUP STORY

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… 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 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 teacup, sit down and
think
on this story and then, have a little talk with the Potter.

– Author Unknown