smiled and said, “Not yet!”
      Then He placed me on a spinning wheel and I went ’round and ’round. I got so sick I thought I wasn’t going to make it, but then He finally let me off. Just as I thought I was going to be all right, my Master put me in an oven. I’ve never understood why He wanted to burn me; I yelled and begged for Him to stop, to let me out. I could see dimly through the glass in the oven door, but He only smiled, shook His head and said, “Not yet!”
     Finally He came and took me out. “Oh, that sure feels better,” I said to myself. Then all of the sudden, my Master picked me up and started sanding and brushing me. Then He took a paintbrush and started painting colors all over me. The fumes were so strong I thought I was going to pass out. I pleaded with Him to stop, but He continued to smile and said, “Not yet!”
     Then He placed me in another oven. This one was twice as hot as the first. I knew that I would suffocate. I begged, I pleaded, I cried, but He still only smiled and said, “Not yet!”
     I began to feel there was no hope. I would never make it. I couldn’t take any more. It was all over for me. I decided to give it all up. Then the door swung open and Master said, “Now!”
     He lifted me up and He placed me on a shelf to rest. Later He came to me with a mirror and told me to look. As I looked at myself, I could not believe my eyes. I said, “Oh my, what a beautiful teacup.”
     Then the Master explained: “I want you to understand that I knew it hurt when I patted and molded you. I knew the spinning wheel made you sick. But if I had left you alone, you would have dried up and always have been just a lump of clay. You would not have had any personality in your life.
     “I knew it was hot when I put you in the first oven, but if I hadn’t, you would just have crumbled.
     “I knew it really bothered you to be brushed and painted, but if I hadn’t, you would not have had any color in your life.
     “Oh, how I knew the second oven was hard for you! But you see, if I had not put you there, you would not have been able to stand the pressures of life. Your strength would not have lasted, so you would not have survived for very long .
    “So you see, when you thought it was all so very hard, I still had you in My care. I knew all along what you would be today. I had the finished product in mind from the day I first touched you!”
                                                             —Author unknown

     “But now, O Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You our potter; and all we are the work of Your hand” (Isaiah 64:8 NKJ).

     “Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31 NKJ).