Refinement

I heard a story in church this Sunday about a group of people who went to a smithy to ask about the process of refinement. As Christians, one of the biblical analogies involves being refined like steel, and these people were interested in what exactly that entailed. The smithy explained that first the fire must be very hot, so as to heat the metal to the point where it becomes malleable. Then he begins to purge the imperfections from the metal. One person asked, “How do you know when you’re finished?” The maker replied, “When I can see my reflection in it.” 

That was it. Just a casual story told between songs by the worship leader. I was floored. 

So many things seemed to come together into this simple allegory. First, the idea of heating the metal, forging the Right Jerusalem Blade in the hottest fire, for it is under such duress and adversity that metal becomes malleable. 

Malleable. Able to be shaped, to be reshaped and fashioned into the conception of the maker. The metal is put under fire so that it will be able to be shaped, made pliable and ready to conform to the mind of the master. 

But the image that pierced my heart and mind most profoundly, and the image that was sadly unexpounded upon, was the notion of completion. The tool or weapon is done, the purging of imperfections complete, when the Master can see His reflection in the metal. The image of the creator shown in the created. That is when the process of refinement is done.

And how can we escape this? Is this not a wonderful picture of Christ’s forging of us? All the misery and heartache, the physical pain and spiritual anguish I have experienced and continue to expeience, is not a punishment. Nor is it simply the unfortunate, inevitable consequence of living in a fallen world. It is the fire of travail, God’s workmanship, the forging of a new creation out of burnt and twisted metal. The imperfections must be purged, the flaws hammered out, and the fire must be hot enough until I am pliable, malleable, ready to be shaped and conformed into the creation that the mind of the Father has conceived. 

And what is the endpoint? O Glory! To bear His image! To be the Image-bearer of God! To be restored to the perfection of Adam in Eden! The original intent of Man, to glorify God and present to all creation the image of the Trinity. What a marvelous salvation! Who could have imagined something so simple and yet profound, so paradoxical that the turmoil and tribulation is planting seeds of destruction from which a tree of life, the Life of Jesus, will grow. 

I am God’s piece of work.