The window from which we look

A young couple moves into a new neighborhood.
The next morning while they are eating breakfast,
The young woman sees her neighbor hanging the wash outside.
"That laundry is not very clean", she said.
"She doesn't know how to wash correctly.
Perhaps she needs better laundry soap."

Her husband looked on, but remained silent.

Every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry,
The young woman would make the same comments.

About one month later, the woman was surprised to see a
Nice clean wash on the line and said to her husband:

"Look, she has learned how to wash correctly.
I wonder who taught her this."

The husband said, "I got up early this morning and
Cleaned our windows."

And so it is with life. What we see when watching others
Depends on the purity of the window through which we look!

Homeless Poem

I have a Master
we don't have a home...
we wander through town
he calls us "rolling stones"..

People call him crazy
they can be so cruel...
some people call him lazy...
this is so untrue...

My master is a Veteran
he was a prisoner of war
now he's just forgotten
but that's what he's got me for.

Some nights we go hungry
Some nights we are cold
but my master does his best
even if he's kinda old...

I help him search the garbage cans
for our daily meal....
and a place to rest our heads....
a cardboard box is our best deal....

and when tomorrow morning comes
and the policemen kick us out...
at least we have eachother...
For that is never a doubt.

written by Savana Frame

The Tea Cup

My sermon yesterday had to do with God being the Potter and us being the clay. At the end, I read the poem, The Tea Cup. I thought maybe you would all enjoy reading it. It helps to put all the trials we go through into a bit better perspective.

The Tea Cup

There was a couple who used to go to England to shop in the beautiful stores.
They both liked antiques and pottery and especially teacups.
This was their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary.

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, "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.'

Then he put me in the oven. I 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.'

'I want you to remember, then,' he said,
'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.

MORAL:

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.