In The Fire

While visiting my bloggy friend Bevy at It's a Golden Day, her post,  In The Fire shook me to my core. I have been in the fire recently, as you know from reading my post, Living On The Edge. Then, a few days ago, Landon had a reaction to his 4 year old shots. He threw up. his arm swelled up, and then he fainted. It was one of the hardest days I have had to date. I was IN THE FIRE. Here's Bevy's post below. Then you'll get what I mean.

"No, I do not have a sterling silver teapot in my kitchen.  However, I came across The Lady in the Stone House by Tami when I was reading and leaving comments on sweet Eloise's blog.  Please lift Eloise's precious daughter, Vivian, in prayer.  She is extremely ill and in the PICU in their local hospital.

I do not know Tami.  However, what she wrote spoke volumes to me.  I hope you will take to heart this story.  Eloise is in the fire. And as I write this, I have many other friends who are in the fire. As Tami wrote, "Everyone has something, sometime when they have been in the fire. It's how you come out of the fire that matters."


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 the 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 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."



Isn't that the most amazing post ever? Just to think of God with me in the fire, keeping his eye on me makes me weep. What a way to look at things when you are in the fire!


 

8 comments:

Dawn Parsons Smith said...

First..{{{Sending you and Landon healing wishes and hugs}}} Are you guys ok?

I cannot even begin to tell you how much this post means to me this morning. The last two weeks have been the worst in my life. Chilly's health is in deeper decline and for the first time in 20 years, he didn't receive a paycheck. No warning...just no paycheck...which meant no medications for Chilly, bills not paid and no groceries...it was horrible...We were definitely IN THE FIRE....

I prayed and prayed. I knew that God had something in store for us...I knew he was guiding us in some way...but I was still scared. Then my son (age 14) said this..."Mom, this is how you know you have faith. It's during the hard times that we show God what we are made of...that's when our courage gets a chance to shine."

Wow! It just turned it all around.

I love this post. Thank you so much for sharing it. So many lives will be touched today by these words.

You are the best!

(sorry for the very long comment!!)

PaperCourt said...

My thought and prayers are with you and Landon (and hubby and Coco). What a beautiful post!

Anonymous said...

Just wanted to let you know that your post today was so meaningful.

Someone I know is in the deepest depths of the fire today. I copied and posted your post to send to her. Hope it helps her with what she is going through!

Just wanted to thank you & let you know you made a difference in someone's life today!!

Jessica Ryan said...

Wanted to let you know that Vivian is home from the hospital. Check out the blog! As for the shot. it was the DAPT... or whatever. We had a similar reaction. It was HORRENDOUS! Alexander's entire arm swelled. It was so bad he could hardly lift it. Not to mention hot to the touch, black and blue... The swelling lasted 4 days. ON the 5th day he developed a high fever.

Somehow we missed A's 4 year check up last year. 4 year shots 3 weeks ago and 5 year shots today. Ugh...

Yellow Beads said...

great post!! :)

bevy said...

You won't believe this, but I needed to reread that so bad! Youngest son J is a little in the fire right now - and therefore, so am I.

So sorry about your little guy... hope he gets to be feeling better! xox

MMM said...

Sending Landon get well wishes. We had shots this week too, and still have a swollen arm. So not fun, but yours sounds much worse!

What a wonderful post. Thank you for passing along. I am going to save this and pass along to those in the fire.

Elizabeth said...

Hope poor Landon gets to feeling better soon. I know it is so much worse when your baby is sick. That is such a wonderful post. A truly inspiring story.