Thursday, October 11

Refined?

I received the following story as an email forward several months ago, and it's been sitting in my "For Blog" folder in my inbox. Well, today's the day. As far as email forwards go, I usually get the same ones about 300 times -- however, this was something new, and I hope it encourages you as it did me. I love hearing natural/physical examples that help me understand spiritual concepts, and this is one such story:

Malachi 3:3 says, "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver."

This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God. One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study.

That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver. As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities.

The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says: "He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver." She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined.

The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed. The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, "How do you know when the silver is fully refined?"

He smiled at her and answered, "Oh, that's easy. I look for the reflection -- when I see my image in it."


If today you are feeling the heat of the fire, remember that God has His eye on you and will keep watching you until He sees His image in you -- His perfect character more fully developed in your life.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOVE it! It gave me chills...thanks for sharing something so inspirational. I'm very thankful for you and your blog :-)

Lucinda Perry said...

Wow. What a story. How encouraging. Thank you. It's nice to know that our God does everything for a reason AND he's got his eye on us the whole time.
PS - It was great to chat with you last night!!!! Love you lots!

Anonymous said...

Jenn, This is a great story and explanation. It is great to know that God doesn't take His eye off us as we are "passing through the fire." It is great to know we are not alone.