The Teacup Story

There was a couple who frequently traveled to England to shop in its beautiful stores. They both liked antiques and  pottery, especially vintage and lovely teacups. One trip was taken to celebrate their twenty-fifth wedding  anniversary. On a visit to a very lovely shop, they discovered an especially beautiful teacup. They asked the proprietor,  "May we see that? We've never seen one quite so exquisite.”

As the sales lady handed the teacup to them, the teacup began to speak… “You don't understand," it said. "I haven't always  been a teacup. There was a time when I was a dull clump of clay. My master took me and rolled me and patted me over and  over, and I yelled out, ‘Let me alone,’ but he only smiled, 'Not yet.’

"Then I was placed on a spinning wheel," the teacup continued, "and suddenly I was spun around and around and around.  '‘Stop it! I'm getting dizzy! I screamed.” But the master only nodded and said, 'Not yet.’

"Then he put me in the oven. I never felt such heat!" the teacup said. “I wondered why he wanted to burn me; 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 a shelf; I began to cool down. ‘There, that's better,' I said. Then he brushed and  painted me all over. The fumes were horrible. I thought I would gag. ’'Stop it, stop it!' I cried. He only nodded, 'Not yet.’

"Then suddenly he put me back into the oven; it was not like the first one. It was twice as hot! I feared I would suffocate. I  begged. I pleaded. I screamed. I cried. All the time I could see him through the opening, nodding his head saying, 'Not yet.’

“I felt there wasn't any hope. I would never make it. I was ready to give up. But then the door opened, and he took me out  and placed me on another shelf.

“One hour later he held me up to a mirror and said, 'Look at yourself.' And I did. I said, 'That's not me; that couldn't be me.  It's so beautiful…I'm beautiful!’”

"I want you to remember this,” He said. “I know it hurts to be rolled and patted, but if I had left you alone, you would have  dried up into hard clay. “I know it made you dizzy to spin around on the wheel, but if I had stopped, you would have crumbled. I knew it hurt and  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 or beauty in your life.

“And, if I hadn't put you into the hotter second oven, you would not have survived for very 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.”

Moral of the Teacup Story: God knows what He is doing…for all of us. He is the Potter, and we are His clay. He will mold  us and make us, so that we may be made into a flawless piece of work to fulfill His good, pleasing, and perfect will.

May this teacup story become our story as we willingly yield to our Potter’s hand. Don’t fight against the  pounding, patting, and pushing that may seem beyond your endurance, just know He’s shaping you into what  He knew you would be.

The teacup story reflects what Jeremiah wrote in Jeremiah 18:1-6