��by Unknown Author
��
��A couple vacationing in Europe went strolling down a little street and saw
� a quaint little gift shop with a beautiful teacup in the window. �The lady
� collected teacups and she wanted this one for her collection, so she went
� inside to pick up the teacup, and as the story goes the teacup spoke and said �-
��
��"I want you to know that I have not always looked like this. �It took the
� process of pain to bring me to this point. �You see, there was a time when I
��was just clay and the Master came and he pounded me and he squeezed me and
�he headed me and I screamed:
��
��"STOP THAT".
��
��But he just smiled and said, "Not yet".
��
��Then he took me and put me on the shelf and I went round and round and round
��and round...and while I was spinning and getting dizzier and dizzier I
� screamed again and I said, "Please get me off this thing...please get me
� off!!!" �And the Master was looking at me and he was smiling as he said,
�"Not yet".
��
��Then he took me and walked toward the oven and shut the door and turned up
� the heat and I could see him through the window of the oven and it was
� getting hotter and hotter and I thought, "He's going to burn me to death".
� And I started pounding on the inside of the oven and I said, "Master, let me
��out, let me out, let me out", and I could see that he was smiling as he said,
� "Not yet".
��
��Then he opened the door and I was fresh and free and he took me out of the
� oven and he put me on the table and then he got some paint and a paintbrush.
��He started dabbing me and making swirls all over me and I started to gag and
��I said: "Master, stop it . . . stop it . . . stop it �please...you're making me gag".
��
��He just smiled as he said "not yet".
��
��Then very gently he picked me up again and he started walking toward the
� oven and I said, "Master, NO! �Not again, pleeeease".
��
��He opened the oven door and he slipped me inside and he shut the door and
� this time he turned the heat up twice as hot as before and I thought, "He's
� going to kill me", and I looked through the window of the oven and I started
��to pound saying, "Master...Master, please let me out...please let
� me out...let me out". � I could see that he was smiling but I also noticed
� a tear trickle down his cheek as I watched him mouth the words, "Not yet!"
��
��Just as I thought I was about to die, the door opened and he reached in
� ever so gently and took me out, fresh and free and he went and placed me on
� a high shelf �and he said: �"There, I have created what I intended. �Would
� you like to see your yourself?" �I said, "Yes". �He handed me a mirror and
� I looked and I looked again and I said, "That's not me, I'm just a lump of
� clay".
��
��He said, "Yes, that IS you, but it took the process of pain to bring you to
� this place. �You see, had I not worked you when you were clay, then you
� would have dried up. �If I had not subjected you to the stress of the wheel
� you would have crumbled. �If I had not put you into the heat of the oven you
��would have cracked. �If I had not painted you there would be no color in
�your life. �But, it was the second oven that gave you the strength to endure. �
�Now you are everything I intended you to be - from the beginning."
��
��And I, the tea cup, heard myself saying something I never thought I would
� hear myself saying, "Master, forgive me, I did not trust you. I thought you
� were going to harm me, I did not know you had a glorious future and a hope
� for me. �I was too shortsighted, but I want to thank you. �I want to thank
� you for the suffering. �I want to thank you for the process of pain. �Here
� I am! �I give you myself - fill me, pour from me, use me as you see fit. I
� really want to be a vessel that brings you glory within my life."