The Potter And The Clay

January 26, 2010 6:19 AM

AUTHOR UNKNOWN

There once was a tea cup, who was not always a tea cup. Here's it's story...

"I have not always been a tea cup. There was a time when I was just a lump of clay. My Master, the Potter, 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 ... 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!" "Not yet," came the reply. 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! "Oh, please, stop it! STOP IT!" I cried. He only shook his head and said. "Not yet."

Then suddenly he put me back into the oven. Only it was not like the first time. This time it 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 and just then, the door opened, and he took me out and again placed me on the shelf to cool. I waited and waited, wondering, "What's he going to do to me next?"

A little while later he came to me and handed me a mirror, saying, "Look at yourself."

And I did. I couldn't believe it. "Who is that? Surely it's not me? It couldn't be! It's ... it's ... beautiful. I'm beautiful!"

Quietly he spoke: "I want you to remember this," 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 be spun 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.

"And 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 finished. Useful. Beautiful inside and out. Now you have become what I had in mind when I first created that lump of clay."

"As the clay is in the potter's hand, so you are in My hand." JEREMIAH 18:6