On any given day, your life may look like this:

You got up late and didn't get to shower. You left for work and forgot important papers so you had to go back home before getting to work. So now you are dirty AND late. You get to work and your boss has been looking for you. Apparently they are downsizing your department and you are being moved to a less than stellar position. You can't wait for lunch. You leave as fast as if your pants are on fire and in the midst of your hurry, you accidentally "bump" the car parked beside you. You get out insurance only to realize it has expired. You end up not even getting lunch. It's all you can do to make it until 5 pm. You get to go home and your husband calls to say he'll be late. Your kid comes home from school with a failed math test and announces that he/she is quitting the latest sport of which you just spent mega bucks getting him/her ready for. What else might your day hold, you ask? Why, oh why, must all this happen to me? And, can anyone do something about it?

We've seen the following illustration before, but it came across the Buzz Desk again recently. It helps put perspective on life's tough days.

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 -- 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.

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