A Golden Reminder

My husband and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary this past June.  That means I have been wearing my wedding band and engagement ring for 15 years (well, the engagement ring a few months longer ). Can I tell you something? I love my wedding rings.  They are probably my favorite material possession.  I rarely take them off - usually only when I am headed for a stay at the hospital. 

If I am sitting down doing nothing, you will often catch me staring at them. I like to see how the the diamond sparkles and the gold shines.  

I love them not only because they are pretty, but because of what they represent.  The engagement ring represents the time and thought Matt put in to research what kind/look I wanted. (He hit the nail on the head - it’s perfect!)  The wedding band represents the love and commitment we made to each other on our wedding day.  All those happy thoughts run through my head when I am looking at them.

But you know what thoughts are not going through my mind?  I’m not thinking about what it took to make them into the beautiful, sparkly, and shiny rings that they are today.  

I’m don’t think about the process the gold has gone through. A highly skilled and trained individual - a master craftsman - takes the raw gold, breaks it into small pieces, puts it through a refining process to remove all the impurities, sends it through a second refining process to make if free of even more impurities, then spins it around and scrapes away until it becomes a perfect oval.  The now refined and purified gold has the middle carved out to form a ring. 

I also don’t think about how the sparkly diamond is actually a base of carbon that has gone through extreme pressure over a period of time to become the beautiful stone that it is now.  Once mined, it is cut with a blade or saw - using great force to remove the weak parts. Now it has become a manageable size. It is then shaped by more cutting and scraping, then it polished to create the beautiful sparkle of the finished product. 

So why am I talking about gold and diamond rings in a devotional? 

Job 23:10 says, “But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.”

I don’t know you and I don’t know what you are going through.  You may be experiencing a fiery trial right now.  You may be in the midst of what seems like the hardest most painful experience you’ve ever gone through.  You may feel the pressure of life bearing down on you to where you think you are going to crumble - you just can’t take it anymore.

I know.  I’ve been there.  That’s where my gold rings come in.  When I look at them now, all I can see is the beautiful result.  But in reality, it took a lot of pressure, painful cutting, sawing and grinding. to get there. (Okay, I know gold and diamonds can’t feel anything - but just stick with me here…)  It took a lot of HARD circumstances, situations and events to get it to that shiny sparkly end.  If those things hadn’t happened, my rings would not look they way they do today.  In fact, I wouldn’t be going around wearing them on my hand.  They’d probably still be somewhere in the ground, unused and not enjoyed. 

Whenever you are going through a trial, keep the gold and diamond process in your mind.  Remind yourself that God is a master craftsman - a highly skilled Person who knows that the process is intense.  He knows the path that you are walking on is difficult.  But he also knows the purpose of it all - what is coming at the end.  He knows that at the end - you will come out as gold - refined and finished.   

James 1:2-4 tells us, “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”

God doesn’t have us go through trials just because. 

He always has a purpose, and that purpose is to shape, polish, and perfect our faith and walk with Him, making us into something beautiful and lovely.  The way that you can “count it all joy” when you are in the midst of the pain and fire, when the pressure is heavy, is by remembering that God is making diamonds and gold. He is refining you and your faith.   

It is not uncommon to find me admiring my wedding rings.  Even after 15 years, I still love to look at them.  But now when I’m admiring them on my finger, I’m thinking about much more than how pretty they are.  I’m reminded of what all it took to get them there.  The process was hard.  So is the Christian life.   But just as it is with diamonds and gold, trusting the Master Craftsman and sticking it out under the strain of difficult times bring an absolutely beautiful result.

Take heart.  There is purpose in your pain.