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Image of God
Malachi 3:3 “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
meeting.
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 she observed that he held a
piece of silver over the fire letting it heat up. He explained
that refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the
middle of the fire where the flames were hottest, in order 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, “He sits as a refiner
and purifier of silver.” She then asked the silversmith if it
was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole
time. The silversmith 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, “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. So remember,
whatever you are going through is like the refiner’s fire making
YOU a better person.
‘Life is a coin.
You can spend it
Anyway you wish.
But you can only
spend it once.’ |
