Most of what a pastor or a priest does happens where nobody is watching. The early meeting, the hospital corridor, the funeral for someone the rest of us never met. October is Pastor Appreciation Month, and whatever else a gift does, a cup gets used every morning.

The Luther Rose Cup is thrown by hand with a tall belly, and it carries a pressed medallion of the rose Luther described in 1530: a black cross in a red heart, set on a white rose, in a field of sky blue, inside a gold ring with no end. He took his own seal apart piece by piece in a letter written from the fortress at Coburg, and gave a reason for every part of it.

It comes in two glazes, Crimson Fall and Cream, and Dark Chocolate and Caramel. Each cup is glazed in a small batch, so the glaze breaks a little differently on every one. No two come out the same.