(Hebrews 12:6’ Romans 8:29)
A visitor was watching a silversmith heating the silver in his crucible. Hotter and hotter grew the fires. All the time the smith was closely scanning the crucible. Presently the visitor said, ‘Why do you watch the silver so closely? What are you looking for?’ ‘I am looking for my face,’ was the answer. ‘When I see my own image in the silver, then I stop. The work is done!’
Why did the silversmith light the fires under the silver? To purify and perfect it … God is looking for a face! It is the face of His Son – for we are “to be conformed to the likeness of his Son” – and He is purging from us all that dims that image.
(James McConkey)