great story.. please read

[Fall54]

Tea cup I never

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

[Larry]

a very thoughtful story........

Larry