When You Need Encouragement, Remember The Teacup

When I was in grade school, I saw an advertisement in a magazine for some china and, to me, it was the most beautiful china I’d ever seen. I loved it so much that I wrote to the company and they sent me a little packet of pictures that I saved until I was engaged to be married. And for my wedding present, my mother bought me a whole set of my very favorite china in the whole world: Old Country Roses by Royal Albert Of England.

I especially love the teacup. Have you ever looked at the beauty of a teacup?

When I worked in the fine china department of Broadway Dept Stores which has now become Macy’s, I learned that you could always tell the quality of a piece of china by holding it up to the light and holding your hand behind it. If you could see the outline of your hand, then you knew that it was of the highest quality – fine china!

So how does a teacup become the beautiful thing that it is?

The story is told about 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 teacups.

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.’”

I wonder if you have, at certain times in your life, felt like that teacup?

You are going through the fire of trials, and you have no idea what God is doing.
It is as though you are on the potter’s wheel and you cannot move and you are in need and don’t know what to do.

Grab hold of a promise from God’s Word for it will anchor your soul and give you hope and the ability to TRUST.

TRUST is Total Reliance Under Stress and Trial

One of the best promises you’ll ever find is Romans 8:28 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.”

If you have ever watched trapeze artists flying through the air, you realize in a new way what it means to trust. In the trapeze there is a flyer and a catcher. At some point, the flyer lets go and is flying through the air. He can’t go back and he can’t go forward. It’s as though he’s suspended in midair. If he flails around he could die. And so he must wait for the catcher to catch him.

That’s what trust looks like. We totally rely on God catching us. We trust in His promises, knowing He is working things together for good even when we don’t understand what He’s doing.

A daughter told her Mother how everything was going wrong in her life - she was failing algebra, her boyfriend broke up with her and her best friend was moving away.

Meanwhile, her Mother was baking a cake and asked her daughter if she would like a snack, and the daughter says, “Absolutely, Mom, I love your cake.”

“Here, have some cooking oil,” her Mother offered.

“Yuck” said her daughter.
“How about a couple raw eggs?”
“No way, Mom!”
“Would you like some flour then? Or maybe baking soda?”
“Mom, those are all terrible!”
To which the mother replied: “Yes, all those things seem bad all by themselves. But when they are put together in the right way, they make a wonderfully delicious cake!

God works the same way. Many times we wonder why He would let us go through such bad and difficult times. But God knows that when He puts these things all in His order, they always work for good! We just have to trust Him and, eventually, they will all make something wonderful!

Corrie ten Boom used to put it this way:
My life is but a weaving between my God and me,
I do not choose the colors, He worketh steadily.
 Oftimes He weaveth sorrow, and I in foolish pride, forget He sees the upper, and I the underside. Not till the loom is silent, and shuttles cease to fly, will God unroll the canvas and explain the reason why.
The dark threads are as needful in the skillful Weaver’s hand as the threads of gold and silver in the pattern He has planned.

So the next time you find yourself in hot water, why not grab your most beautiful teacup, brew some hot tea, sit down with an open Bible, find some promises, and have a talk with your Lord.

NOTE: This message is taken in part from Message 6 of the Passionate Prayer Quiet Time Experience Series and was also given as a Mom2Mom Devotional on January 27, 2010.