Kelly Gibbons, artist and writer, about me

Saturday, October 09, 2004

My friends Gary and Maude sent this to me, and I had to share. I'm not sure of the original author.

The Teacup

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

posted by Kelly @ 10/09/2004 03:10:00 PM

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