God’s Jewels
But he knows the way that I take;
when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.
Job 23:10
Something that I read this morning alerted me to the fact that I may be looking at suffering and hardship in the wrong way. I am aware that God will use those things to His purpose. It is not a foreign thought to me that a challenge will bring one closer to God. Today I read a message I have read many, many times before. It is from a book that I have had and loved for so many years that it is held together with tape. The pages are so yellowed that I have to have the “good” reading glasses to read it. (Good in this case meaning not bent and of stronger magnification.) All of that background is to show that this is not a new message to me. I should have seen this years ago and yet God chose today to truly reveal this idea to me.
The author was referring to God as a sculptor. He spoke of a piece of rock that gets tossed aside because it has no potential. That piece regards itself as perfect as it watches another rock being faceted and polished. Perhaps God chose now to reveal this to me because my husband has begun taking rocks and turning them into jewelry. He begins with a large clump. Some of the clumps are pretty colors and some just look odd. Then he takes them to the machine and grinds, buffs and shapes for hours. Later he will bring in a perfect oval, circle, heart, cross or some other shape, shiny and beautiful. Each time he says to me, “Hold it up to the light.” My response is almost always, “Wow!” What was formerly a lump of rock is now a beautiful stone that truly pleases the eye. Sculpted and faceted it is now able to take in the light, reflect it and in doing so become even more beautiful. Just as after grinding and testing we are better able to reflect the light of God.
This morning the message I read referred to the feelings of the rock not being faceted or shaped. That rock, the author asserted, most likely feels superior. After all it was not forced through heat and grinding. That rock apparently doesn’t see that it was simply set aside, that the sculptor or jeweler saw nothing in it that seemed worth any effort.
Once I picked up a rock that seemed to catch the light well and was a really pretty color. When I asked my husband what he was going to do with it he said nothing. It was cracked and too weak to withstand the process. Look at that from the prospective of people. We see people living “charmed” lives and we envy them. We shouldn’t. There is a good possibility that God sees them as too cracked or weak to withstand His training.
Reading that message again today and viewing it in light of my husband’s jewelry I now have a slightly different perspective on trials and challenges. God is indeed still working on me. He’s working on my dearest friends and some of my family too. I hate watching my friends or family hurting. I’m not terribly thrilled with pain for myself either but it certainly helps to see it as a byproduct of being chosen by God. If we weren’t worth His time He would leave us in the bin with the other lumps of useless rock.
I am so pleased that God pawed through the dirt and pulled me out. I’m thankful that He spends time grinding and shaping me to fit into His plan. Above all of that I am so pleased that today He taught me that those people who feel so superior because God is not challenging them are wrong. It is in the trials that all of us can know that God is with us, working on our character and relationship with Him.
when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.
Job 23:10
Something that I read this morning alerted me to the fact that I may be looking at suffering and hardship in the wrong way. I am aware that God will use those things to His purpose. It is not a foreign thought to me that a challenge will bring one closer to God. Today I read a message I have read many, many times before. It is from a book that I have had and loved for so many years that it is held together with tape. The pages are so yellowed that I have to have the “good” reading glasses to read it. (Good in this case meaning not bent and of stronger magnification.) All of that background is to show that this is not a new message to me. I should have seen this years ago and yet God chose today to truly reveal this idea to me.
The author was referring to God as a sculptor. He spoke of a piece of rock that gets tossed aside because it has no potential. That piece regards itself as perfect as it watches another rock being faceted and polished. Perhaps God chose now to reveal this to me because my husband has begun taking rocks and turning them into jewelry. He begins with a large clump. Some of the clumps are pretty colors and some just look odd. Then he takes them to the machine and grinds, buffs and shapes for hours. Later he will bring in a perfect oval, circle, heart, cross or some other shape, shiny and beautiful. Each time he says to me, “Hold it up to the light.” My response is almost always, “Wow!” What was formerly a lump of rock is now a beautiful stone that truly pleases the eye. Sculpted and faceted it is now able to take in the light, reflect it and in doing so become even more beautiful. Just as after grinding and testing we are better able to reflect the light of God.
This morning the message I read referred to the feelings of the rock not being faceted or shaped. That rock, the author asserted, most likely feels superior. After all it was not forced through heat and grinding. That rock apparently doesn’t see that it was simply set aside, that the sculptor or jeweler saw nothing in it that seemed worth any effort.
Once I picked up a rock that seemed to catch the light well and was a really pretty color. When I asked my husband what he was going to do with it he said nothing. It was cracked and too weak to withstand the process. Look at that from the prospective of people. We see people living “charmed” lives and we envy them. We shouldn’t. There is a good possibility that God sees them as too cracked or weak to withstand His training.
Reading that message again today and viewing it in light of my husband’s jewelry I now have a slightly different perspective on trials and challenges. God is indeed still working on me. He’s working on my dearest friends and some of my family too. I hate watching my friends or family hurting. I’m not terribly thrilled with pain for myself either but it certainly helps to see it as a byproduct of being chosen by God. If we weren’t worth His time He would leave us in the bin with the other lumps of useless rock.
I am so pleased that God pawed through the dirt and pulled me out. I’m thankful that He spends time grinding and shaping me to fit into His plan. Above all of that I am so pleased that today He taught me that those people who feel so superior because God is not challenging them are wrong. It is in the trials that all of us can know that God is with us, working on our character and relationship with Him.
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