My girls and I love a bonfire. There’s just something about that smokey smell that lingers in your hair, the mix of autumn chill with the fire’s warmth and the frolicking orange flames that draws us back, again and again. Perhaps our affection also has to do with happy memories of conversations and community around many past bonfires. Perhaps it’s just the s’mores. 😊
Fire is such fickle friend, though. The same fire that offers heat and light and ooey-gooey golden marshmallows, also has the capacity to burn, consume and destroy. I’ve seen the damage and felt the terror of an out-of-control bonfire.
What makes all the difference is who controls the fire.
The book of Malachi refers to God as a refiner who uses the fires of affliction to purge and purify his people. It is in fire’s very nature to be hot. You simply cannot be touched by a flame without discomfort. Yet this pain, in the hands of our perfect Father, has a purpose.
James E. Faust wrote, “All must pass through a refiner’s fire, and the insignificant and unimportant in our lives can melt away like dross and make our faith bright, intact, and strong. There seems to be a full measure of anguish, sorrow, and often heartbreak for everyone, including those who earnestly seek to do right and be faithful. Yet this is part of the purging to become acquainted with God.”
We come to truly know Him—to be like Him—in the fire. This is the purpose of the refining.
When gold is first found, it isn’t very beautiful. It’s 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 fire is not a comfortable place to be. It is hot and painful and the hammer blows are relentless. But the heat is what makes the impurities rise to the surface; so he heats and removes, and heats and removes…
Until he sees his own reflection in the gold.
And so it is with me. To some, I may look like a complete mess. But God sees my potential, beyond my impurities. He doesn’t set me aside. He picks me up and carefully places me in the fire. A controlled fire. Not to destroy me, but to refine me. Oh, how the fire hurts! All the hammering seems relentless. But the 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…
Until, at last, He can see His reflection in me.
August 18, 2022