A Polished Stone in the Making

The above pictures are what I saw as I was walking back to the house from chores this morning. Our neighbors were burning brush or something. As I looked to the right of my house big clouds of smoke were billowing up. When I looked to the left of our house, I saw the smoke hanging thick, lazy and close to the ground as the breeze carried it out towards the pasture. It made me think of the smoke coming from our chimney. I love the smell of wood smoke. It is a homey smell to me. The fragrance comes from the destruction of something for our good. The smoke started out as a living tree. Either we cut it down or it was blown down by the wind. Then it is cut into smaller pieces and those pieces are chopped into even smaller pieces. Then we take that cut wood and throw it in a stove or fireplace and set it on fire. It spreads through the house giving us warmth.

Have you or your child ever had a rock polisher? My son got one from his grandparents. They send you a bag of stones with it. They look like ordinary rocks that you could find outside in your driveway. You put a hand full of them together in the tumbler with some pretty heavy duty grit to start with. Then you turn it on. For days, that tumbler turns and those rocks are thrown together and the grit goes between them wearing away the outer layer. Then you take them out and rinse them. It does not end there. They go back in for days with another grade of grit and the process continues. It is a hard grating away of the outward ugliness. When you take the stones out in the end, they are polished smooth and are beautiful not only to the eye, but also to hold in your hand.

A pearl is a beautiful thing. However, it starts out as an irritant. A piece of grit or sand gets in where it is not supposed to be. The oyster keeps trying to coat it and we get a beautiful pearl to hold or wear.

Trials and testings are what polishes us. We have lots of ugliness and things that are not good in us. God allows trials to come our way to fit us for His purpose. My Mom had a Gaither CD that was all about going home to heaven. One of the songs on it was When He Cometh. After the song Joni Earickson Tada comes on and tells about learning that song as a child along with the verse 1 Kings 6:7 And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready at the quarry; and there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building. She said that our time here on earth is the quarry where we are chiseled, hammered, honed, refined and polished to fit us to be jewels in His crown. My family is in the quarry. We have had many trials and testings over this last 2 years and we are in the midst of another severe testing time right now. I pray that the Lord will use all that is going on to make the 3 of us into jewels fit for His crown. There are many going through the fires of testing. I think of Brian and Christina Fuller We need to pray for one another, encourage one another, spur one another on. Are you a polished stone in the making? Are you feeling discouraged because of trials in your life right now? Share them with us. Let us pray one for another. James 5:16b The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.