The
Master Potter
Author Unknown
There
was a couple who used to go to England to shop in a
beautiful antique store. This trip to the store was to celebrate
their
25th wedding anniversary. They both liked antiques and pottery,
and
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: "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 me and poked and prodded and bent me out of shape
to suit himself and then he put me in the oven. I've 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, '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 would 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 that 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 for each of us. He
is
the potter, and we are His clay. He will
mold
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 and 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 nicest tea cup, sit down and think about this story, and then have
a
little talk with the Master Potter.
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Copyright
© 2006, Jace Carlton. All International Rights Reserved.
