The first time someone told me where glass came from I didn't believe them. Sand? You have to be kidding! What is more, the process of getting from gritty granules to translucence is pressure and heat! Yikes! Those are two of the things many of us wiggle pretty hard to avoid, being under pressure and taking the heat.
Yet this is the human condition. Any story worth telling has a conflict. Every hero faces a struggle. The Bible is a record of pain, heartache and loss.
Is this because God could not orchestrate it any other way? Is it possible that this is not the detour, but the path of life?
Thinking back on the times in my life when things heated up, it seems possible that they did in fact make me stronger. More transparent.
There is life after failure. I once made a list of what felt like failures, and after a few years they no longer held me back. They were part of how I became strong. One time when I was overwhelmed by loss I actually heard
a voice say "This is a bump." Which fired me up. But it was true.
When I look at a beautiful piece of glass, I feel grateful that it was able to withstand the fire.
"See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in
the furnace of affliction." - Isaiah 48:10
"This third I will bring 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
