Refiner's fire

I think I may have shared this before, but I read it again this week, and it struck me, again.

The language and examples may be old, but the truth behind it remains the same.

"I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument." Isaiah 41:15

"A bar of steel worth five dollar, when wrought into horseshoes, is worth ten dollars. If made into needles, it is worth three hundred and fifty dollars; if into penknife blades, it is worth third-two thousand dollars; if into springs for watches it is worth two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. What a drilling the poor bar must undergo to be worth this! But the more it is manipulated, the more it is hammered, and passed through the fire, and beaten and pounded and polished, the greater the value.

May this parable help us to be silent, still, and long-suffering. Those who suffer most are capable of yielding most: and it is through pain that God is getting the most out of us, for His glory and the blessing of others." Streams in the Desert

Sometimes we don't understand God's ways. This Sunday at church our pastor mentioned the story of the Israelites command to march around the city of Jericho, in the book of Joshua. Logically, marching around a city made no sense. They should have been planning a siege. Cutting off the water supply, starving them out. Settling in for a long and drawn out battle, while sharpening their spears and arrows. Instead, God had them march around the city, playing instruments and singing praise.

I can promise you that there were doubts. Questions. Skeptics.

But, and here is the important part, they did it. THEY DID IT.

They marched, and played their trumpets and sang praise while they marched.

So, we are marching too. Ours plans are not the same as HIS. Our timing is not the same as HIS. Even though it sometimes requires being hammered and passed through the fire in order to be the shape needed, our family will continue to march. One step at a time, singing as we go.

Please, sing with us. The harmony of others being hammered and passed through the fire, yet marching and singing too - that is the most beautiful song in the world.