The Teacup Story
A couple of weeks back I was reminded about a story I had read a few years ago. It's called "The Teacup Story" but before I share it with you, let's go to the Bible.
Jeremiah was one of God's prophets in the Old Testament. He was called by God to pass messages on to God's people. In Jeremiah 18:1-6 we read about an object lesson God gave to Jeremiah and which is still relevant for us today:
God told Jeremiah, “Up on your feet! Go to the potter’s house. When you get there, I’ll tell you what I have to say.”
So I went to the potter’s house, and sure enough, the potter was there, working away at his wheel. Whenever the pot the potter was working on turned out badly, as sometimes happens when you are working with clay, the potter would simply start over and use the same clay to make another pot.
Then God’s Message came to me: “Can’t I do just as this potter does, people of Israel?” God’s Decree! “Watch this potter. In the same way that this potter works his clay, I work on you, people of Israel. (MSG)
God is the potter and you and I are the clay. God, the potter, shapes us according to his plan. And even before he begins shaping us he knows his intended outcome. He has a purpose for each and every one of us:
We are confident that God is able to orchestrate everything to work toward something good and beautiful when we love Him and accept His invitation to live according to His plan. From the distant past, His eternal love reached into the future. You see, He knew those who would be His one day, and He chose them beforehand to be conformed to the image of His Son so that Jesus would be the firstborn of a new family of believers, all brothers and sisters. As for those He chose beforehand, He called them to a different destiny so that they would experience what it means to be made right with God and share in His glory. Romans 8:28-30 (VOICE)
God knows what is best for us because he created us and because he loves us. So he works on us, moulding, bending, shaping and transforming us.
As the clay, we are to submit to the process, surrender to his working, knowing and trusting that all he does is for our best. It can often be painful as he removes from our lives things he never intended to be there, such as pride, unforgiveness, bitterness, resentment, lust etc.
Sometimes we forget that we are the clay. We want to be the potter because we think we know what's best for us. We have our own plans and ideas. We try to have our own way. Sometimes we have the audacity to say to God: "Stop, you're doing it wrong." But who's really in the wrong - the one being made whole, the clay, or the Master Creator, God? Then God has to remind us once again who he is and who we are. That we are in his hands, and then we surrender and submit once again to his working.
In God's hands our once broken, crushed, fragmented, disconnected lives are made whole as he makes us what he always meant for us to be. He is the one who makes us fit for purpose and only he can enable us to achieve our full potential.
So now for "The Teacup Story" (Author Unknown) and if you're sitting comfortably, I'll begin...
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| The Teacup Story |
There was once a couple who took a trip to England to shop in a beautiful antique store. They wanted to purchase something to celebrate a special anniversary. They both liked pottery, especially teacups. Noticing an exceptional cup, they asked, "May we see that? We've never seen a cup quite so beautiful."
As they were handed the cup the teacup spoke up:
"You don't understand. I have not always been a teacup. There was once a time when I was just a lump of red clay. My master took me and rolled me, pounded me and patted me over and I yelled out, 'Don't do that. I don't like it! Leave me alone.' But he only smiled, and gently said, 'Not yet!' Then WHAM! I was placed on his potter's wheel and suddenly I was spun round and round and round. 'Stop it! I'm getting so dizzy. I'm going to be sick,' I screamed. But my 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 have 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, 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 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. But just at that moment 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?' Later he picked up 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 my master spoke, 'I want you to remember. I know how much it hurt to be rolled and pounded and patted. But if I had just left you alone, you'd have dried up. I know it made you dizzy to spin around on my 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 colour in your life. If I hadn't put you back into 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 exactly what he's doing in our lives, what he allows and why he allows it because he has a vision of what he wants us to be. He sees the end from the beginning. He will mould and make us and expose us to just enough pressure of just the right kind at just the right time and for just the right length of time so we may be made into a beautiful work of art which fulfils his good, pleasing and perfect will and which also glorifies him.
To Think About:
Look back over the times when God has been working on you. Perhaps it is only in looking back you realise that what was very painful at the time, was actually for your good. That God was producing something beautiful in you.
How easy do you find it to surrender and submit to the hand of the Master Potter on your life? What makes it easier for you to surrender to his will and his ways?
Others may look at you and see who you are now and not realise what God has taken you through to bring you to this point in your life. Do you think it is helpful for others to know your story? Why do you think it is good to be open and honest with others about our past?
This week would you spend some time reading and re-reading 'The Teacup Story'. As you do so would you sit quietly with God and ask him to speak and minister to you through this story? (There is so much in it I believe that each time you read it God could say something different to you if you would allow him to.) I'd love to hear from you what you sensed God saying to you.
Vicki
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