I was upstairs when I heard my daughter’s panicked voice: “Mom, the yard is on fire!” She had been burning papers in the fire pit and one got away from her, igniting the field behind our home. She tried to douse it with water, but the blaze was quickly out of control. The forestry department had to dig a trench to extinguish it.
That was several years ago.
More recently, I observed a controlled burn. From my perspective, it looked exactly the same as our fire. A field was ablaze. What I couldn’t see was that the fire was intentionally set under close supervision with a specific plan of action.
The same flame that burns, consumes and destroys can offer heat, light and purification.
The difference is in who controls the fire.
The same flame that burns, consumes and destroys can offer heat, light and purification.
The difference is in who controls the fire.
When I think about the fires of trial and testing I’ve experienced these past five years, from my point of view, my life looked pretty wildly out of control at times. I have had way more questions than answers and every time I think I’ve got a handle on things, another flame flares up.
It is in fire’s very nature to be hot. You simply cannot be touched by a flame without some level of discomfort. Yet this pain, in the hands of our perfect Refiner, has purpose. It is in the fire that we come to truly know Him—to be like Him.
That is the beauty of refinement: the Master controls the fire.
When gold is first found, it isn’t very lovely. It is lumpy and dirty and full of impurities. But the refiner sees what we cannot. He sees potential. So, he takes the rock and places it in the fire. This is not a comfortable place to be. It is hot and painful, and the hammer blows are harsh and relentless. But that heat is what makes the impurities rise to the surface: so, he heats and removes, and heats and removes, and heats and removes…
Until he sees his own reflection in the gold.
And so it is with us, my valley-walking friends. To some, we may look like an unlovely mess. But God sees the potential beyond our impurities. He doesn’t set us aside. He picks us up and carefully places us into the fire—a controlled fire—not to destroy us, but to refine us.
Make no mistake; the fire hurts! All the hammering seems harsh and utterly relentless. But our Refiner knows exactly what it will take to bring all of the things that don’t look like Jesus to the surface.
So He heats and removes, and heats and removes, and heats and removes…until, at last, He sees His own reflection in us.
For our good, and for His glory.
Our field has grown back since that fateful summer day. In many ways, so have we.
Yet, the landscape will never be exactly the same, as the scars remain on the trees and the trench remains in the ground.
We have been forever changed, as well. But that’s the point, isn’t it? At the end of my days, it is my greatest desire that the Master peers into my face and sees the reflection of His Son.
In that moment, it will be worth it all.
But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
Job 23:10
In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
1 Peter 1:6-7
