A few days ago, Michael and I went to a local glass blowing studio, to work with an artist there and make two glass ornaments. We watched as this artist pulled hot, liquid glass on a long skewer from the furnace and begin the process.
He rolled this molten blob of glass in chips of color, and then put it back into the furnace to heat it up again.
I got to stand at the fiery opening of one of the furnaces and turn the skewer steadily to make it moldable.
Then the artist rolled it on a cool metal table, to help give the ornament its shape. and then back into the furnace. When it was hot again, there was more rolling and shaping.
And when he was ready, He sat at another workspace and shaped the ornament as I blowed warm air, slowly into the glass ball.
It was a unique experience. As I stood and watched Michael take his turn, I couldn’t help but think about the fire – the extreme heat – around 2000 degrees the artist told us.
I couldn’t help but compare the process to my own life…
The only way for me to become the most lovely creation that the Heavenly Father has designed – I must be placed in the furnace, heated over and over to the highest temperatures so that I can be molded and formed into what He desires.
What does my furnace look like?
It turns the temperature up on my impatience, on my self-preservation, on my fears. Situations that bring intense pain, force me to take inspection of all the ways I don’t look like Him or act like Him or follow Him… And in those moments of true repentance, I become like that molten glass, ready for Him to work on me and change my heart and my mind… I suppose everyone has their own furnace.
Job knew all about the furnace:
Look, I go forward, but He is not there,
And backward, but I cannot perceive Him;
When He works on the left hand, I cannot behold Him;
When He turns to the right hand, I cannot see Him.
But He knows the way that I take;
When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.
As I consider my own life, and see each distress, each difficulty, I can look at my circumstances for what they are : In the furnace, and the pressure on that hard surface, and then more heat, the trimming away and the impressions – It is His handiwork as the Master Artist, creating me to be exactly who He wants me to be.
The furnace is a most wonderful and terrible place. It hurts. It is uncomfortable. But this knowledge is glorious: I am becoming His finest art work.
daily portion 