Seven Refinements

Sterling silver can be quite beautiful.  I have many sterling pieces and they are well crafted, sometimes highly polished to a mirror finish, sometimes polished to a satin finish, and often beautifully curved shapes.  Each is unique and beautiful in its own way because the silver has a shining quality and a special feel to it in the hand.  What every sterling silver piece has in common is pure silver.  Well, 92.5% pure.  That’s the current definition of purity in silver jewelry and household goods.

Silver is a metal which, in its raw state, contains many impurities.  It is formed in the earth as rock, ore.  The ore can contain many other minerals, like copper and nickel.  In its raw state, silver is not pretty – it’s just another rock.  It takes the knowledge and skill of a craftsman to take the rock and gradually turn it into the pure metal that can be used for jewelry.  Modern smelting techniques take the ore and process it eight times to achieve 99.9% pure silver.  But pure silver is not useful to a silversmith in making anything.  It is too soft and pliable.  Like play dough, any shape it’s given or engraving made on it will easily be remolded.  Modern processes add in other, harder metals to allow the silver to hold its shape while still maintaining its natural beauty.

In biblical times, they didn’t process silver to the point of absolute purity.  The definition of pure silver was essentially sterling quality.  The bible indicates that the purest silver was refined seven times (Psalm 12:6).  Seven times the ore was processed, usually through melting the metals to separating or burn off the impurities.  The bible also says that He will refine His people like silver:

“You have refined us as silver is refined.” (Psalm 66:10)

“He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the LORD offerings in righteousness.” (Malachi 3:3)

“And I will bring the third part through the fire, refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested. 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 my God.'” (Zechariah 13:9)

These refinements aren’t intended to be painful, although if you consider the idea of having parts of yourself burned off, it sounds like they have to be.  To be honest, sometimes they are.  I went through a long process of refining in relationships, mostly my marriage.  It was a painful process.  My husband and I had allowed our marriage to grow progressively worse until we were on the brink of divorce.  While divorce seemed the much easier road to take, we were both committed to remaining in the marriage.  It was a hard, painful road from that point, but we chose to work on how to relate better with one another.  It has been very much worth the effort.  Learning to relate well with my husband not only rescued my marriage and turned it into a thing of beauty, it entirely changed the way I relate to people in general.  God’s refinement of my marriage also refined me in a way that allows me to form and maintain healthy relationships with people – something I could never have done before.

Sometimes these refinements are nearly invisible and imperceptible.  During the process of refining my marriage, God also began to refine me emotionally.  He helped me see ways in which I was using relationships to satisfy emotional needs that weren’t appropriate in those relationships.  He also showed me how I was avoiding other relationships because I didn’t want to face the emotional pain or turmoil that existed in them.  That refinement continues, under the surface and often barely noticeable, except for its effects on my heart.

As I look at my life, I see seven distinct areas of refinement: relational, emotional, financial, spiritual, physical, intellectual, and vocational.  God has worked in seven periods of my life to refine these areas of my life.  Some of these refinements have been short bursts of insight and activity in my life while others have been long-term projects we slog through together.  In every case, changes have been made that make me a better me and more reflective of Him.  He hasn’t removed all the impurities, I still have a great many flaws in each of these areas, but he has removed the bulk of the ways in which I was working against His design for me.  While He continues to work on me – I’m not nearly sterling quality yet – I have learned to work with Him.  I know I am being purified to the point where I can be useful to Him.  I am becoming a beautiful and shining example of His handiwork, sculpted and engraved for His good purposes.