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THE LESSON OF THE SILVERSMITH
THE LESSON OF THE SILVERSMITH
A man went to visit a silversmith. The silversmith took some dull gray ingots of metal and put them in a crucible. He set the crucible over a hot fire, and he pumped gas and air into the flames and made the fire hotter and hotter. The visitor could feel the heat from a distance across the workroom. The silversmith leaned closer and bent over the crucible looking intently into the hot molten metal.
"What is it you are doing to the metal in the crucible?" asked the visitor.
The smith just waved his hand, so intently was he watching the silver.
"What are you looking for?" The visitor asked.
"I am looking for my face in the silver. When I see my image reflected in it, then I stop. The work is done."
The man leaned over the shoulder of the smith and peered into the crucible. The dull gray lumps of metal had melted into a metallic fluid; it was now pure silver, bright and clean. A moment later it became a mirror showing the face of the man.
God is like the silversmith. He may need to put us in the crucible and heat the flames to test and purify us but He is bent over watching for His image to develop in us.
(C)Adron Dozat
