God's Beautification Process!

We recently had the opportunity to go to an Okinawan glass company. It was so cool to watch the workers pull the orange-red hot sticky glass from the kiln and work it into shapes: blowing it into a mold, hitting and shaping it, then heating it up again in the kiln to set the current shape. I was reminded of some verses in the Bible that I had memorized as a child.....

"That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of
gold that perisheth, though it be tried in the fire, might be found unto praise
and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ."

As Christians, we liken our trials as being put through the fire. God is the master designer and we are but the creation of His hands. Let me illustrate..... I love typologies!

First, we started off with a hard clear stick of glass, hardened by a cooling.... As Christians, we can become hardend by a spiritual cooling. Hebrews 3:13 ".....lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." I have experienced this and didn't even realize it! As I read a little further, Paul writes, "....if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end...today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts..." We can become hardened as this stick of glass by allowing our hearts to become "cooled off" to our beginning in Christ. We can become critical of those around us, comparing ourselves with others, making up our own 'list' of what we feel is spiritual growth. We can quickly forget where we came from, what Christ brought us out from, and how long it took for us to make changes. We can become hardened by sin, though we may not even realize it's sin, hey, that's why Paul referred to it as "the deceitfulness of sin". We're teaching our children to keep or guard their hearts as written in Proverbs: "Keep thy heart with all diligence.."

In order to get the bead that we were designing, we had to get this stick of glass hot enough to melt, so that it would be pliable for molding it into what we had in mind. The Christian life is a growing process, a molding, or at least it should be. If you are not growing, then think again, you might have been put up on the shelf for another day! Don't you ever wonder that right when things seem to finally be going right in life, you get 'blessed' with another trial?! You are the 'diamond in the rough' and God is shaving off those raw edges to make you shine! Through just enough heat, the glass will melt and become very pliable, it may even start to drip if not removed from the heat in time. God as our Master Designer knows just how much fire to put us through, He knows what we can take. As our Creator, He knows what we're made of!

"...but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able..."

Our consolation is that God is in control! But it's not until we've exhausted all our power and ability, that He will take control. God will not force you to do His will.


Once the glass had reached it's pliable state, we had to constantly turn it back and forth to keep it even on all sides. We pulled it out of the fire to cool it off a bit, blowing on it as we turned it back and forth. We are held in His hands as a precious fragile piece of glass, melted by the heat of the trial, pliable in his hands for the molding process. He can shape us into the image that He so desires, as we move to His turning, yielding to the Holy Spirit. Paul writes:

"..... but though our outward man perish, yet the
inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but
for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of
glory;..."

Once we had the bead shaped to our desired size, we added color through the same melting process. A little more heat would be required to add the beauty that would set it apart from the rest! One can think of a trial as God's beautification process, He has seen you as someone He wants to use. He's making you again into what He wants you to be. He's adding beauty to your life, by taking more of your will away and giving you His.

"But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work."

I like the words of this song:

"He made it again, made it again, as it seemed good unto the potter, though it was marred, weary and worn, He took the clay, new life was born."

Well that brings up another typology...... for another day!