The Tea Cup

There was a couple who used to go to England to shop in the beautiful stores. They both
liked antiques and pottery and especially teacups. This was their twenty-fifth wedding
anniversary.

One day in this beautiful shop they saw a beautiful teacup.They said, "May we see that?
We've never seen one quite so beautiful."

As the lady handed it to them, suddenly the teacup spoke. "You don't understand," it
said. "I haven't always been a teacup.

There was a time when I was red and I was clay. My master took me and rolled me and
patted me over and over and I yelled out, "let me alone", but he only smiled, "Not yet."
"Then I was placed on a spinning wheel," the teacup said, "and suddenly I was spun
around and around and around.Stop it! I'm getting dizzy! I screamed. But the master
only nodded and said, 'Not yet.'

Then he put me in the oven. I never felt such heat. I wondered why he wanted to burn
me, and I yelled and knocked at the door. I could see him through the opening and I
could read his lips as He shook his head, 'Not yet.'

Finally the door opened, he put me on the shelf, and I began to cool. 'There, that's better,'
I said. And he brushed and painted me all over. The fumes were horrible. I thought I
would gag. 'Stop it, stop it!' I cried. He only nodded, 'Not yet.'

Then suddenly he put me back into the oven, not like the first one. This was twice as hot
and I knew I would suffocate. I begged. I pleaded. I screamed. I cried. All the time I
could see him through the opening nodding his head saying, 'Not yet.'

Then I knew there wasn't any hope. I would never make it. I was ready to give up. But
the door opened and he took me out and placed me on the shelf. One 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.'

'I want you to remember, then,' he said, 'I know it hurts to be rolled and patted, but if I
had 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 knew it hurt and 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.
And if I hadn't put you back in that second oven,you wouldn't survive for very long
because the hardness would not have held. Now you are a finished product. You are
what I had in mind when I first began with you.


God knows what He's doing (for all of us). He is the Potter, and we are His clay. He will
mold us and make us, so that we may be made into a flawless piece of work to fulfill His
good, pleasing, and perfect will.

No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he
will not tempt you beyond what you can bear; but with the temptation also make a way
to escape, that you may be able to bear it.
(Author Unknown)