subject: Youth Illustration: Not Yet [print this page] A man and wife who are both fanciers of antiques, pottery and china enter a little china shop in Sussex, England. Their eyes single out a little teacup on the top shelf.
"May I see that?" he asked. "I've never seen a teacup like it. Its beautiful!"
But suddenly the teacup spoke! "You don't understand...I haven't always been a teacup. There was a time that I was red...and I was clay. My master took me and rolled me...and patted me over...and over...and over. 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. "Suddenly I was spun around...and around...and around. 'Stop it...I'm getting dizzy!' I screamed."
"The master only nodded and said: 'Not yet.'"
"Then he put me in an oven...I've never felt such heat. I wondered why he wanted to burn me...and I yelled...and I knocked on 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 did open...whew! He put me up on the shelf...and I began to cool. 'There...that's better, I said.'"
"Then suddenly he brushed me...and painted me all over. The fumes were horrible...and I thought I would gag: 'Stop it...stop it!' I cried. He only nodded: 'Not yet.'"
"Then suddenly he put me back into an oven...not the first one...but one twice as hot. 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 and saying: 'Not yet.'"
"Then I knew there was no hope...and I would never make it. I was ready to give up. But the door opened...and he took me out...and he placed me on a shelf. One hour later...he handed me a mirror and said: 'Look at yourself.'"
"And I did...and I said: 'That's not me...it couldn't be me! I'm beautiful!'"
"'I want you to remember', he then said, 'I know it hurt to be rolled and patted...but if I had left you...you would have dried up. I know it made you dizzy to spin you 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 you...and painted you all over, but you see...if I hadn't done that...you would never have hardened. There would have been no color to your life. And if I hadn't put you back in the second oven...you would not have survived for very long...and the hardness would not have held. Now you're a finished product.... You're what I had in mind when I first began with you!'"
Source: Ben Haden, Changed Lives (Chattanooga, Tennessee: Ben Haden Evangelical Association, Inc., 1973), pp. 15-16.
