BSD
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, and especially teacups.
>
>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, 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….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 headfrom
>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 g oing 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 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.'”
>
>God knows what He’s doing in 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, pleasing and perfect will.
>
>So when lif e 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
>have a
>little talk with the Potter.–
Each yid has a place in the heart of Hashem. Help him find it !