A couple vacationing in Europe went strolling down a little street and
saw a quaint little gift shop with a beautiful teacup in the window. The
lady collected teacups and she wanted this one for her collection, so
she went inside to buy the teacup, and as the story goes the teacup
spoke and said:
"I want you to know that I have not always
looked like this. It took the process of pain to bring me to this point.
You see, there was a time when I was just clay and the Master came and He pounded me and He squeezed me and He kneaded me and I screamed: "STOP
THAT!". But He just smiled and said, "Not yet".
Then He took me
and put me on the shelf and I went round and round and round and
round... and while I was spinning and getting dizzier and dizzier I
screamed again and I said, "Please get me off this thing... please get
me off!" And the Master was looking at me and he was smiling, as He
said, "Not yet".
Then He took me and walked toward the oven and
shut the door and turned up the heat and I could see Him through the
window of the oven and it was getting hotter and hotter and I thought,
"He's going to burn me to death!".
And I started pounding on the
inside of the oven and I said, "Master, let me out, let me out, let me
out!", and I could see that He was smiling as He said "Not yet". Then He
opened the door and I was fresh and free and He took me out of the oven
and He put me on the table and then He got some paint and a paintbrush.
He started dabbing me and making swirls all over me and I
started to gag and I said: "Master, stop it... stop it... stop it
please... you're making me gag". He just smiled as He said "not yet".
Then
very gently He picked me up again and He started walking toward the
oven and I said, "Master, NO!! Not again, pleeeease!!". He opened the
oven door and He slipped me inside and He shut the door and this time He
turned the heat up twice as hot as before and I thought, "He's going to
kill me!!", and I looked through the window of the oven and I started
to pound on it, saying, "Master... Master, please let me out... please
let me out... let me out!".
I could see that He was smiling but I also noticed a tear trickle down His cheek as I watched Him mouth the words, "Not yet!"
Just
as I thought I was about to die, the door opened and He reached in ever
so gently and took me out, fresh and free and He went and placed me on a
high shelf and He said: "There, I have created what I intended. Would
you like to see yourself?" I said, "Yes". He handed me a mirror and I
looked and I looked again and I said, "That's not me, I'm just a lump of
clay".
He said, "Yes, that IS you, but it took the process of
pain to bring you to this place. You see, had I not worked you when you
were clay, then you would have dried up.
If I had not subjected
you to the stress of the wheel you would have crumbled. If I had not put
you into the heat of the oven you would have cracked. If I had not
painted you there would be no color in your life. But, it was the second
oven that gave you the strength to endure. Now you are everything I
intended you to be - from the beginning." And I, the teacup, heard
myself saying something I never thought I would hear myself saying,
"Master, forgive me, I did not trust you. I thought you were going to
harm me, I did not know you had a glorious future and a hope for me. I
was too shortsighted, but I want to thank you.
I want to thank
you for the suffering. I want to thank you for the process of pain. Here
I am! I give you myself - fill me; pour from me, use me as you see fit.
I really want to be a vessel that brings you glory within my life."
{Author Unknown}
"HE has made everything beautiful in it's time. HE
has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom
what God has done from beginning to end." {Ecclesiastes 3:11}