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Silver

There was a group of women in a Bible study on the book of Malachi. As they were
studying chapter three, they came across verse three which says: “He will sit as a refiner and
purifier of silver” (Malachi 3:3). This verse puzzled the women and they wondered what this
statement meant about the character and nature of God. One of the women offered to find out
about the process of refining silver and get back to the group next week.
That week the woman called up a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at
work. She did not mention anything about the reason for her interest in silver beyond her
curiosity about the process of refining silver. As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of
silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the
silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest so as to burn away all the
impurities.
The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot — then she thought again about
the verse, “He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver.” She asked the silversmith if it was true
that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined. The man
answered “Yes,” he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eye on the
silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left even a moment too long in the
flames, it would be destroyed.
The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, “How do you know
when the silver is fully refined?” He smiled at her and answered. “Oh, that’s easy. When I see
my image in it.”
“But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are
transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit” (2 Cor.
3:18).

~Author Unknown