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Short Stories (Stories for the Youth), book by Father Tadros Yacoub Malaty

166- Touches of A Creative Hand

 

St-Takla.org Image: Hands making a pot, potter, pottery. صورة في موقع الأنبا تكلا: يد تصنع خزفًا، الخزاف، الفخاري.

In a school trip to a factory of pottery in Qena, in Upper Egypt, the students of a primary school and their teachers watched in amazement how the potter took a peace of mud, put it on a rotating wheel and formed from it a beautiful vessel. One of the boys asked the potter for a peace of clay and took permission from him to put it on the rotating wheel. As the potter gave him permission, the piece of clay became a beautiful vessel. The boy held it and as he tried to straighten a part of it, the neck of the vessel broke.

The student was embarrassed and the other students were laughing at him. The potter smiled and with his creative touch was able to put the broken part back and the final product was a vessel more beautiful than it was before its neck was broken. The student was happy and so were the other boys.

→ English translation of the story here at St-Takla.org: لمسات يد خلاّقة!

+ If our lives resemble a piece of clay, as we try by our own hands to shape it, it breaks and we lose our lives. It needs the touches of God's hand, the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, Who by His amazing power creates from it a living icon for Him, fit to be placed in heaven.

 + My Creator, look at me, a handful of dust. Who can shape me in Your image except You? I tried hard but to no avail. Whenever I try to do good, I find evil near by.

 + My own hands destroy me, but Your Kind Hands bless me. Your mercy leads me to heaven. Many people mock at me for my helplessness in making myself holy, But You lord, with Your great love gives me hope. You hold my life in Your hand to form it in Your great glory.

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