China Teacups

"You have hidden Your face from us… Yet, O Lord, 

You are our Father; we are the clay, 

and You our Potter, and we all are the work of your hand."

 (Isaiah 64:7-8)

* * *

A couple went into an antique shop one day

 and found a beautiful teacup sitting on a shelf.  

They took it off the shelf

 so they could look at it more closely, and said, 

"We really want to buy this beautiful cup!"

Suddenly, the teacup began to talk, saying

 "You know, I wasn't always like this.  

"There was a time when I was just a cold, hard,

 colorless lump of clay.  

One day my master picked me up and said,

 'I could do something with this!'  

Then he started to pat me, roll me, and change my shape.

"I said, 'What are you doing?!  

That hurts!  

I don't know if I want to look like this! 

Stop!"

"But he said, 'Not yet…'

"Then he put me on a wheel and began to spin me 

around and around and around,

 until I screamed, 'Get me OFF! 

I'm getting dizzy and sick!'

'Not yet.' he said.

"Then, he shaped me into a cup 

and put me in a hot oven. 

I cried, 'Let me OUT! It's hot in here! 

I am suffocating!'  

But he just looked at me through the glass and smiled 

and said, 'Not yet.'

"When he took me out, 

I thought his work on me was over, 

but then he started to paint me.  

The brush was cold and wet and the colors were dull.

It was not a pleasant experience at all!

"I couldn't believe what he did next!  

He put me back into the oven! 

I cried, 'You have to believe me! I can't stand this!

 Please let me out!' 

But he sighed, and said, 'Not yet.'

"Finally, he took me out of the oven 

and set me up on a shelf 

where I thought he had forgotten me.  

"Then one day he took me off the shelf 

and held me before a mirror.  

"I couldn't believe my eyes!  

I had become the most beautiful teacup 

that everyone wants to buy!"

* * *

I love this story I read in Joyce Meyer's book, "Beauty for Ashes."

The message?

Sometimes that is all we have left to do

is submit to the Potter's hands.

Just relax, 

stop fighting, 

and let the Universal Power take over.

If we can do this, 

we may wake up one day and realize

 after all the pain we've endured, 

we are no longer cold lumps of clay,

but are like a rainbow of beautiful teacups.