TEA CUP

Long ago this story of ‘The Teacup’ was being circulated via email. Here is the reproduction of that story. Please mull over the other perspective and another dimension presented at the end!

There was a couple that used to go?shopping in the beautiful stores. They both liked antiques and pottery and especially teacups. One day in this beautiful shop they saw a beautiful teacup. They said, "May we see that? We've never seen one 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 teacup. There was a time when I was red and I was clay." My master took me and rolled me and patted me over and over and I yelled out, "let me alone", but he only smiled and said, "Not yet."?

"Then I was placed on a spinning wheel" the teacup said, "and suddenly I was spun around and around and around. Stop it! I'm getting dizzy!" I screamed. But the master only nodded and said ‘Not yet, not yet’.

Then he put me in the oven. I had never felt such heat. I wondered why he wanted to burn me, and I yelled and knocked at the door. I could see him through the opening and I could read his lips, as he shook his head, “Not yet”.

Finally, the door opened, he put me on the shelf, and I began to cool. "There, that's better," I said. And he brushed and painted me all over. The fumes were horrible. I thought I would gag. "Stop it, stop it!" I cried. He only nodded, "Not yet."?

?Then suddenly he put me back into the oven, not like the first one. This was twice as hot and I knew I would suffocate. I begged; I pleaded; I screamed; I cried; All the time I could see him through the opening nodding his head saying, “Not yet."?

Then I knew there wasn't any hope. I would never make it. I was ready to give up. But the door opened and he took me out and placed me on the shelf. One 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.”

Then, he said:?

"I want you to remember - I know it hurts to be rolled and patted, but if I had 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 knew it hurt and 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.

“And if I hadn't put you back in that second oven, you wouldn't survive for very long because the hardness would not have held. Now you are a finished product. You are what I had in mind when I first began with you.”

?God knows what He's doing (for all of us). He is the Potter, and we are His clay.

He will mold us and make us, so that we may be made into a flawless piece of work to fulfill His good, pleasing, and perfect will.?

Now for the 'Other Perspective and Another Dimension'.?

In the ‘Tea Cup’ story, a certain part of clay is 'feeling' that it has become a beautiful cup after going through a lot of hardship.

Another part of the clay may also be rejoicing that without doing much, it is giving support to a plant and nourishing it! (law of least effort?!)

Some other part of the clay having become brick may be feeling good, as it is providing shelter...... to yet.....

…some other part of the clay that has turned into a Ganesha idol being worshiped.... in that shelter?!

After all, the Potter and the clay are all same. Different forms of the "ONE".