Devotion 9
Isaiah 64:8
Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.
Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.
THE TEA CUP
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
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, 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 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'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 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 have a little talk with the Potter.
God Bless You!
Pastor Pat Aman
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