FOODFORTHOUGHT

THE TEACUP
Author Unknown
September 22, 2009


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 quiet 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 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
the 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 you.'"

Jeremiah 18:6 "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter
does?" declares the LORD. "Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are
you in my hand, O house of Israel."

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