Ring of Fire

This story is all over the Internet, but I'm not sure who originally wrote it. Suffice it to say that this isn't a Chris Kalnmals original...but true to storytelling fashion, I've put my own spin on it. You won't find this exact version anywhere else. Unless of course someone likes it enough to post it somewhere else. Details, details. Anyway, without further ado, here's the story:

A women's Bible study group was working their way through the book of Malachi and at the beginning of one of their meetings, they ran across the following verses:

But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness

Malachi 3:2-3 (NIV)

The core meaning of the verses was clear to the women, but the context was a little cloudy. How exactly did one go about refining silver? Was it a lengthy process? Did it require a great deal of skill? What steps were involved? The women were very curious about this subject and they collectively decided that if they knew more about how silver was refined, they could better understand and appreciate the passage.

It was decided that one of the women would investigate the silver refining process and share what they learned with the rest of the group at their next meeting. Unfortunately, however, there weren't any volunteers. After all, no one likes homework. So the women decided to pick straws. Or maybe they rolled dice, or picked a number between one and ten, or did eenie-meenie-minie-mo. I've never been to a women's Bible study before, so I wouldn't know how they handle things like this.

The young lady who picked the shortest straw (or rolled the lowest number, or was "mo," or whatever) wasn't looking forward to her homework for the week, but she decided to make the best of it. She looked in the phone book and found that there was a silversmith who had a workshop in a nearby town. Simple, she thought to herself. I'll call him up, ask him my question, and I'll be done. Perfect!

When she called the silversmith, he was more than willing to answer her questions, but he made a suggestion: "Instead of me telling you about refining silver over the phone, why don't you come to my workshop and I'll show you? For something like this, a demonstration is always more educational." The woman was thrilled. Field trip, she thought to herself. Cool! After all, field trips are always more fun than homework. That's just a general rule of thumb, right?

A few days later, the woman met the silversmith at his shop. They shook hands and the smith said, "All right. Let's get down to business. This might take a while." He led her into the heart of his workshop and handed her an apron, some safety glasses, and a chunk of dull, gray metal. "That's where the silver comes from," the smith said with a grin.

He took a similar piece of metal, put it in a pot, and opened the door to his smelting furnace. He put the pot into the furnace and watched intently as the metal began to melt. The woman asked, "Is there any particular reason you watch the silver so closely?" Without looking away from the furnace, the man replied, "Yes, there is. If I don't watch the refining process closely, I run the risk of spoiling the silver." The woman nodded and continued to watch the man work.

Eventually, the smith removed the pot from the furnace and skimmed a gleaming layer of liquid silver off the top. "The silver rises to the top," he explained, "and the rest of the impurities settle to the bottom." When the silver had cooled and solidified, the smith put it back in the pot and began melting it down again. "Why are you refining the silver again?" the woman asked. Smiling, the silversmith replied, "Because it's not pure yet. I keep refining the silver until all the impurities are gone. It's a long process and it's tedious, but it's worth the wait."

An hour later, the smith was still refining the silver. He seemed to be infinitely patient, the woman thought. She, however, was not. She was bored and was getting restless as well. "How much longer do you think it will take?" she asked. "How do you know when the silver is totally pure?" 

The smith smiled and replied, "I know the silver is pure only when I can see my reflection in it."

*     *     *     *     *

The dull, gray metal the silversmith started with had silver in it, but it was mixed in with other metals. In order to separate the silver from the impurities, the smith had to smelt the silver in his furnace. He couldn't have chipped away the impurities with a chisel or scrubbed them away with a wire brush---refining the silver by fire was the only way to get it pure.

God's refining process for us is very similar to the refining process for silver. All of us have impurities in our lives as a result of sin. Everyone has addictions, bad habits, and evil desires that they have a hard time dealing with. Fortunately, God has a way of purging us of our impurities. Unfortunately, however, His purification process isn't painless.

Oftentimes, we come before God with the sins and temptations that we just can't seem to overcome. We want God to make us pure, but when we find out that He wants to refine us with His refining fire, we decide that maybe that sin isn't so bad after all. Going into the fire would make us uncomfortable. It would be painful. It would be hard. So instead of surrendering to God, we try to deal with our sin by ourselves. We try chiseling it away and brushing it off, but no matter how hard we try, our sin sticks with us. We fail to realize that some impurities can only be removed by a hot fire and a skilled refiner.

If you'd like to see just how painful God's refining process can be, consider the Israelites. After tolerating centuries of idolatry and wickedness, God decided that His people needed to be refined:

Your silver has become dross, your best wine mixed with water . . . Therefore the Lord declares, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel . . . I will turn my hand against you and will smelt away your dross as with lye and remove all your alloy. 

Isaiah 1:22-25 (ESV)

Not long after Isaiah made this prophecy, the entire nation of Israel was attacked by foreigners. The invaders destroyed Jerusalem and killed thousands of Israelites. Those who weren't killed were carried off into captivity in foreign lands, where they remained for many years. God's refining process isn't pleasant and it can often take a long time, but it's worth the wait. When God's people came out of captivity, they were pure and holy, ready to serve Him:

I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up, and not tear them down; I will plant them, and not uproot them. I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart. 

Jeremiah 24:6-7 (ESV)

Like the silversmith in the story, God always keeps a close eye on us during the refining process. He knows how much heat we can take and He won't overdo it. Being refined by God isn't easy and it isn't fun, but God will never give us more than we can handle (1 Corinthians 10:13). We can take comfort in knowing that God removes our impurities out of love, not because He enjoys seeing His children face difficult times.

In the story, the silversmith knew that the silver was pure when he could see his reflection in it. In the Christian life, God knows we're pure when He can see His reflection in us. Matthew 5:48 tells us that we should be perfect because our Father in heaven is perfect. In other words, we should live so that God can see His reflection in us. None of us is perfect, though---like the silver in the beginning of the story, we all have impurities that prevent God from seeing His reflection in us. Like the silversmith, God has a way of dealing with our impurities, but it's up to us to surrender to His refining fire.

Can the Almighty Silversmith see His reflection in you today, or do you need to be refined?