The Potter

[H-Ellenback]

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, 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, suddenly the tea-cup spoke to
>> the couple;
>>
>> "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, 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!"
>>
>> I could see him through the opening and I could read his lips
>> as he shook his head from side to side and again said, "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 the 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 with 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 your favorite tea, in your prettiest tea cup,
sit
>> down and think on this story and then... have a little talk with the
>> Potter.