| This year |
| All years |
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.
MORAL:
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.