There was a couple who used to go to England to shop in the beautiful stores. This was their 25th wedding anniversary. They both liked antiques and pottery and especially tea-cups. They saw a cup and asked “may we see that? We’ve never seen one quite so beautiful.”
As the lady handed it to them, the tea-cup spoke. “You don’t understand” it said, I have not always been a tea-cup. There was a time when I was just clay. My master took me, rolled and patted me over and over and I yelled out, let me alone. But He only smiled and said “not yet.”
Then I was placed on a spinning wheel and I was spun around, around and around. “Stop it! I’m getting dizzy!’ I screamed. But the master only nodded His head and said “not yet.”
Then He put me in the oven. I never felt such heat. I yelled and knocked on 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 and he put me on the shelf, and I began to cool. Then he brushed and painted me all over. The fumes were terrible, I thought I would gag. “Stop it, stop it’ I cried. He only nodded ,”not yet.”
Then He put me back in the oven, not like the first one. It was twice as hot and I just knew I would suffocate. I begged, I pleaded, I screamed, I cried. 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.
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.”
“I want you to remember then,” He said, “I know it hurts to be rolled and patted, but if I had 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, and if I put you back in that second oven, you wouldn’t survive for 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.”
God knows what He’s doing (for all of us). He is the potter, and we are the clay. He will mould us and make us, so that we may be made into a flawless piece of work to fulfill His good, pleasing and perfect will.