TAPESTRY~ N~ VELVET
|
The Tea Cup
The Tea Cup There was a couple who used to go to England to shop in a beautiful antique store. They both liked antiques and pottery, and especially tea 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 teacup spoke… “You don’t understand,” it said: “I haven’t 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 going to be sick!’ I screamed. But the master only nodded and quietly said, ‘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 into 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 that 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 back to the beginning,” 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.” Dear friends God knows what He is doing with 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 so that we may be made into a flawless, beautiful piece of work to fulfill His good, pleasing and perfect will. So, when life seems hard-and it will-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 be sinking ~Try This~ Brew a cup of your favorite tea in your prettiest tea cup, relax, and think of the little “ English Teacup.” Then Have a talk with the Potter. “Then I went down to the potter’s house, and behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand.”(Jeremiah 18:3, 6)
The Cracked Pot “The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter’s house, and behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.” Jeremiah 19:1-4 A water bearer in India had two large pots, each hung on the end of a pole which he carried across his neck. One of the pots was perfectly made and never leaked. The other pot had a crack in it and by the time the water bearer reached his master’s house it had leaked much of it’s water and was only half full. For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water to his master’s house. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do. After two years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream. “I am ashamed of myself, and I want to apologize to you.” “Why?” asked the bearer. “What are you ashamed of?” I have been able, for these past two years, to deliver only half my load because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your master’s house. Because of my flaws, you have to do all this work, and you don’t get full value from your efforts,” the pot said. The water bearer felt sorry for the old cracked pot, and in his compassion he said, “As we return to the master’s house, I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path.” Indeed, as they went up the hill, the old cracked pot took notice of the sun warming the beautiful wild flowers on the side of the path, and this cheered it some. But at the end of the trail, it still felt bad because it had leaked out half its load, and so again the pot apologized to the bearer for its failure. The bearer said to the pot, “Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of your path but not on the other pot’s side? That’s because I have always known about your flaw, and I took advantage of it. I planted flower weeds on your side of the path, For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate my master’s table. Without you being just the way you are, he would not have this beauty to grace his house.” Each of us has our own unique flaws. We’re all cracked pots. But if we will allow it, God will use our flaws to grace His table. In God’s great economy, nothing goes to waste. Don’t be afraid of your flaws. Acknowledge them, and You too can be the cause of beauty. Know that in our weakness we find our strength. (~Author Unknown)
Clay Pots Ancient households used clay pots of all sizes, shapes and colors. They were a valuable tool and no home was without them. The large jars were used to store water and olive oil jugs wee used to carry water and small terra-cotta vials held perfume Clay storage jars were filled with grain and other foods Homemakers used clay pots for cooking. At meal time, shallow pottery bowls were used as platters and dishes and in the evening the homes were lit by clay lamps. The potters who supplied these much-needed pots were important to the economic life of ancient villages A modern potter described her craft like this: “Both my hands shaped this pot. And, the place where it actually forms is a place of tension between the pressure applied from the outside and the pressure of the hand on the inside. That’s the way my life has been, Sadness and death and misfortune and the love of friends and all the things that happened to me that I didn’t even choose. All of that influenced my life. But, there are things I believe in about myself, my faith in God and the love of some friends that worked on the inside of me. My life, like this pot, is the result of what happened on the outside and what was going on inside of me. Life, like this pot, comes to be places of tension.” Throughout the day we maybe buffeted by stress, pulled apart by responsibilities, and pressed by challenges that come at us from the outside. Without strength of spirit on the inside, During this break, feed your spirit with Scripture. This will keep you strong, renewed, and restored within. You can respond with inner strength and creativity to what could otherwise defeat you. Remember, your inner life gives you the strength you need to become a useful vessel in the household of God. “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.” (2 Corinthians 4:16)
|
|||
|
Copyright (c)2007 TAPESTRY~ N~ VELVET & OurChurch.com
Web Hosting and Design by OurChurch.Com | Administrator |
|||
