Parable of the Teacup
A young couple was in a unique gift shop looking for the perfect gift to celebrate their engagement anniversary. Their eyes caught a perfectly beautiful teacup. As they talked about its fantastic beauty, they reached for the cup. Just then the teacup spoke and said, “You don’t understand. I have not always been a teacup. There was a time when I was a lump of red clay. My master took me and molded me. He patted me over and over.”
“Let me alone!!” yelled the teacup. “Not yet,” said the master. He then placed me on a spinning wheel. I spun around and around and around. “Stop it! I’m getting dizzy! I cried.
Then the master nodded, “Not yet!” Finally the door opened. Wheeee! He put me on a shelf, and I began to cool. “There, that’s better,” I said. Suddenly he brushed me with paint all over. The fumes were so awful that I began to gag. “Stop it! Stop it!” I cried. He only nodded, “Not yet.” He then put me back in the oven. This oven was twice as hot as the first one. I just knew that I would suffocate. I begged and pleaded and screamed and cried. I could see through the opening that he was saying, “Not yet.” It was then that I gave up all hope. Suddenly the door opened, and he took me out of the oven and placed me on the shelf. About an hour later, he handed me a mirror and said, “Look at yourself.” I took the mirror and looked in it and said, “That’s not me. That couldn’t be me. Why, that’s beautiful.”
The master softly spoke these words to me, “I want you to always remember that I knew it would hurt you when I rolled and patted you, but if I had left you as you were, you would have dried up. I knew it made you dizzy to spin around the wheel, but if I had stopped, you would have crumbled. I knew when I put you in the oven; it would be hot and uncomfortable. But you see, if I had not put you there, you would have cracked. I knew the fumes were horrible when I painted you, but if I had not painted you, you would have never hardened, and you would not have any color to your life. If I had not put you back in the second oven, you would not have survived very long, because your hardness would not have held together. Now you are a finished product. You are exactly what I had in mind when I first began with you.”
Ladies, we must remember that God might send difficult times into our lives, but He doesn’t do it because He hates us; He loves us very much. It may be during those times that you feel like screaming out, “Let me alone.” But, oh, think of His finished products. Your (products) lives will not only be beautiful, but they will be glorifying to Him.