By Wendy Reaume

Jesus told parables a couple of reasons. He wanted to teach the disciples and those who really wanted to learn but didn’t want the Pharisees and religious leaders who had ulterior motives to get in the way of understanding. Parables were also used to drive home a point by laying something known alongside of something unknown for understanding.

Today I am going to share with you a modern-day parable. This story is not found in the Bible, but the lesson it teaches is found in the book of Jeremiah. The Scripture at the end is what is important and will tie it all together.

There once was a couple who used to shop in the beautiful stores in England. They were always looking for something unique, and this day, they stumbled upon quite a find: it was a dainty, brightly painted teacup made of fine bone china. They purchased the teacup and took it home. But this teacup was far from ordinary. In fact, the first time they filled it with tea, it began to talk.

 "I haven't always been a teacup, you know,” it said.  “There was a time when I was red and I was clay. My master took me and rolled me and patted me repeatedly and I yelled out, 'Let me alone,' but he only smiled, 'Not yet.'

"Then I was placed on a spinning wheel," the cup 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.'

"Then he put me in the oven. I never felt such heat!" the teacup said. "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 before a mirror.

That's not me,” I said. This can’t be me. I’m beautiful. I'm beautiful!'

Then the master said, “Listen carefully. '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.”

This teacup story illustrates what Jeremiah wrote by the inspiration of God in Jeremiah 18:1-6.

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.”  So, I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel.  But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so, the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.

Then the word of the Lord came to me. He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel. 

God knows what He is 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 piece of work that is beautiful because it will fulfill His good, pleasing and perfect will. May we be willing to yield to our Potter’s hand.[1]

Our song for today is It Is Well With My Soul by Audrey Assad.

[1]
                 Teacup story is anonymous. Lesson borrowed from Susan Smart.