By Tanya Jolliffe
When I was in college, I worked in a sand-casting aluminum foundry. During my month-long Christmas break, my uncle, who co-owned and managed the foundry, needed help delivering finished cast aluminum products by van around Ohio. Luckily, he could also use my help over summer break, so I also spent several summers working there.
The delivery process was sometimes challenging since I had never driven a 16-passenger van filled with a heavy pallet of wrapped goods. The competitor in me took each challenge head-on. One of the first deliveries I had to make included backing the van up a steep single-lane incline with no guardrails on either side. What made it worse was having the male workers watching and taking bets that I would drive the fully loaded van right off the side and roll it. I can’t deny that the risk crossed my mind, but so did the challenge to prove them wrong. Not only did I make it up the incline safely the first time, I left the boys and their bets speechless as I mastered the process by the end of the summer.
While waiting for deliveries to be ready, my uncle would put me to work in other areas of need in the foundry. One of my favorites was making aluminum grave markers for beloved pets for a local cemetery. I also learned how to use a shot blaster to finish parts and prepare sand to make mold patterns.
I found the process of pouring molten aluminum metal into a prepared sand mold pattern to create a cast aluminum part fascinating, although it was sweltering, dirty, and tiring. As I think back, I remember my uncle preparing the liquid aluminum for molding by heating and skimming the impurities to make it as pure as possible to produce a quality product.
Scripture teaches that God wants to prepare us similarly: to heat and skim all our impurities to make us as pure as possible and a quality product for his use.
“For you, God tested us; you refined us like silver. You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs. You let people ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance” (Psalm 66:10-12 NIV).
“See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction” (Isaiah 48:10 NIV).
“This third I will put into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name, and I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God'” (Zechariah 13:9 NIV).
“And the words of the LORD are flawless like silver purified in a crucible like gold refined seven times” (Psalm 12:6 NIV).
“These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith —of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Peter 1:7 NIV).
When we feel the heat of life, we often look to our feelings and sorrows instead of the work the LORD tries to do in and through us. If we could step back and reflect, we could see how God is trying to refine us and remove impurities.
I recently saw a video shared on social media that reminded me of my time at the foundry and the refining process. The video referenced Malachi 3:3, which says, “He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver,” and how it reflects God’s character and why he ultimately wants to refine us.
In the video, the presenter @Angelo_estates describes how a woman made an appointment with a silversmith to better understand the process of refining silver described in Malachi.
The silversmith explained that to refine the silver, he had to sit and hold it in the hottest part of the flame to get rid of its impurities. Angleo continues to explain that the woman focuses on how God leaves us in the hottest part of the flame, but it still isn’t clicking with the first part of the verse that states, “he will sit as a refiner.”
So, she asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit over the fire and watch the entire time. The silversmith replies that he keeps a close eye on it because if he holds it in the flame for any longer than it’s supposed to be there, the silver will be damaged.
Then, she asked the most critical question. How do you know when the silver has been fully refined and purified? The silversmith replied with the answer that makes the verse from Malachi come to life. He said it’s easy. It’s when I can see my image in it.
Let God refine you, knowing he is sitting right there with his eye on you every minute in full assurance that he would never leave you in the fire long enough to damage you but long enough to fully refine and purify you so he can see his image in you. Then, go and let your light shine.
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