There once was a magnificent Kingdom ruled by a great King. The King’s son was soon to be married and the King wanted to give him a gift worthy of a Princely wedding. The King was a master craftsman gifted in shaping lumps of precious material into the most beautiful objects. He decided to create silver cups for each of the guests to drink from at the wedding feast. He set to work on finishing 1,000 silver cups. When he finished, though very tired, he smiled with satisfaction knowing this was a good gift for the Prince’s wedding. The King wrapped each cup individually and then covered them over in the cellar to protect them until the wedding.
Now this King was not without an enemy. Upon learning of the Prince’s wedding, the King’s enemy sought a way to ruin the gift the King prepared for his son. He knew the cups were made of such quality that nothing would be able to destroy them – the workmanship was too fine and the superiority of the metal to any of his own weapons that any attempt to damage the cups would be futile. However, he knew their value and purpose would be lost if he only uncovered them and exposed them to the elements of nature. Several weeks before the great wedding feast, this enemy made his way to the cellar through cover of shadow and darkness, and unwrapped each precious cup.
The eve of the wedding came and the King took his son to the cellar to present him with his gift. But as they arrived they saw the cover had been pulled back and each cup exposed. The enemy had thrown dirt and oil upon them and the silver had begun to tarnish. The King cried at the loss and then called his servants to take the cups away as they were no longer worthy to be drunk from by even the lowliest of men, let alone used at a royal wedding. But the son looked at his father with a soft and quiet heart and said, “Father, let me take the cups, and each one will I carefully take time with. The quality of the cup is good; I will remove the tarnish and redeem the cups. I will restore them to their original value.”
The Prince did just that. All night long he washed and scrubbed each cup. Removing all of the sludge and dirt, he scrubbed so hard his hands bled. The blood mingled with the water was the perfect combination to scrub away the dirt. On the morning of the wedding the sun peaked over the hill and gleamed over 1000 perfect silver cups.
The King came to the Prince and rejoiced with him. “You have restored my gift, you have redeemed the cups. Truly they are once again worthy for the royal guests to drink the royal wine.”
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4 comments:
hey guys who wrote this?
My beloved Jason did ... one Sunday evening in Delhi he was asked to share a short word of encouragement to the believers there, and he told this story. I asked him where he'd heard it and when he told me he had just come up with it, I asked him to write it down because I liked it so much.
J, what else did you share with the story? It's a great story, but how did you apply it to peoples' lives?
I (Brooke) will give you the answer from the audience side of it ... it was a quasi-testimony. He's a cup. Each of us is a cup. Created as a beautiful treasure, tarnished by an enemy, and restored by the Son's personal sacrifice.
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