Life can get tough sometimes. And we can take it really personally.  A pastors’ wife friend of mine recently said to me, “Lessons, pruning, sifting, refining…etc…it’s all of this and more…it’s completing us!”

Right now, I really am working hard to remember the pruning process, and to allow myself to be refined. I really thought these processes would make less of me…. but I think there’s more going on than I previously understood.

The pruning picture resonates with me based on what I’ve seen in life.

Previously, I’ve always envisioned that God’s perfecting process would round off all my rough edges. I thought overall that God would be break ME down and that would make me somehow less. However, a lot of this process has felt like it’s defining more edges in me.

My experience with pruning real trees in real life, much like the process I’ve been going through, has shown me that when the pruner knows what they are doing, the plant/tree takes on a MORE defined shape, and with the unneeded bits removed, the plant is stronger, sturdier, healthier, MORE of what it’s supposed to be.

Refining makes sense, too.

I’ve always envisioned the refining process as myself being heated up and poured out… put me in the fire to watch me melt! (That melting process renders me weak and vulnerable, gooey, hard to handle,…).  And when I finally cool off, I’ll be stronger. (I have a blacksmith in the family – heat / cool / heat / cool – I understand that process which strengthens steel.) It’s always felt like this process was a rather brute force approach – throw me in the fire and see what happens!

But a refiner, who knows what they are doing, pours off all the bad stuff that separates from the true metal, leaving behind a more concentrated, purer form of the metal. A master refiner can separate the impurities without losing any of the preciously refined metal, too.

The refiner knows how hot to heat each metal, how fast to heat each metal, and how long to heat each metal to get rid of the impurities (which separate at different times and different temperatures). The refiner also respects the metal in its molten state – it is perilously hot, and great care must be taken when handling it. Containment of the molten metal is essential, or it will spread out and be contaminated by the environment – all the separating work would be for naught.

So when the metal cools, it is purer, more METAL than it was before, and will have taken the shape of the mold that the refiner put it into, according to the purpose for that metal.

Either way – whether by pruning or refining – the process hurts and is hard. I have felt like I’m being hacked and burned, sometimes a lot. I’m trying not to take it personally (my first reaction is to be offended that I need to be pruned!) and to let it work, to let the Gardener and Master Smelter do HIS work.

Does pruning or refining resonate more with you, when you think of your times of growth?

images linked to sources. credit: © Miguel Saavedra & © Kristin Smith