The Refiner Things in Life

The kids and I were on our way home from driving a friend to the airport when Jada remarked at the vastness of the Sunoco oil refinery off the Platt Bridge on the way back to our part of town.  I told her it was a refinery and asked her if she knew what a refinery way.  She said no so I proceeded to tell her, and also used the opportunity for a lesson about God.

Refining oil, I explained, meant heating it at a very high temperature, at which any impurities in it got burned off, leaving only pure oil.  I also told her that the Bible speaks of this process as an analogy of how God sometimes works on us.  There might be times, I told my kids, when God was refining them, and it might hurt, just like a very hot fire, but it was so that any impurities in us got burned away, leaving only our purity behind. 

It was a little too abstract for them, probably, but hopefully the image nestled in their heads before we moved on to the next topic of conversation.  May we all be open to our Great Refiner's work in our lives, not shunning the heat but understanding its role in perfecting us.