Refining Glass | Seeing God
My kids will tell you I sing in the shower and sometimes in the car. Most days, I sing praise songs and hymns. It’s one of the few times when my mind is without distraction by necessity. Now and then, I simply lift a prayer and open my mouth to see what the Lord pours out. It’s been a while since I have just rested in that kind of singing, but something prompted me a few days ago. The only thought I had in my head was I wanted to sing a song focused on the majesty of God, His Godness if you will. Instead I got a message of God’s refining grace.
I cannot tell you the words of the song, because they never do stick with me. I don’t think they are supposed to, though I hope one day He will give me songs to share again. But, I can share the awesome image He gave me, which was not what I intended it to be, but seems to be what He meant for me to hear and see and know. The words He gave me talked first of being His reflection, His image in the world. They evoked Paul’s language of seeing through a glass darkly. In my mind’s eye I saw a dirty, cracked, opaque glass with a weak light on the other side.
Refining to Purify
The words evoked Paul’s claims that we have the treasure of God’s power in jars of clay, fragile and imperfect. Then Christ’s call for us to be the light of the world. That we are not to hide our light under a basket, but light the whole house. That we are the image bearers of God …
And then the vision, of God so lovingly and carefully taking the darkened glass of my life, soaking and cleaning the dirt, dust, grime and grief of my sin sick heart with His great love and the blood of His Son. His patient polishing, sometimes with painful grit and sometimes with a gentle cloth, to remove every scratch, chip and blemish in the vessel that is my life. His life giving breath to set the fire and light of the Holy Spirit safely inside that glass vessel – refining continually the surface from within, until that glass is so clear that every time someone looks at me they only the see the image of Christ shining.
That visual alone was enough to bring me to tears. It’s been a time of trial on many fronts. This is a season of uproots, of cracking, of crushing. There are days when my mind feels like a whirlwind of chaos and my heart feels overwhelmed. The knowledge that this process is one of refining with the goal of removing all the buildup of distraction and disillusionment that came with the last several years grants me perspective that I need desperately in this moment. But, there was more when I settled to write today.
Refining to Focus
Matthew 5:15 says, “Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.” In our personal lives God refines our glass to give light to those around us. But, the next season of my life seems to be leading toward a broader ministry again, that speaks in the public square and is done before men to bring glory to my Father in heaven, as the next verse in this passage states. As I was exploring lighthouses today, God gave me the sense of an additional refining that I have been experiencing. One that perhaps some of you are going through as well. A refining of focus so that my light does not simply give light to others, but brings glory to God.
Did you know that lighthouses have special lenses that go around the central light? The light they produce is a high intensity xenon light that gives off a really bright white color. But, by itself, it still wouldn’t get very far into the darkness of the night or a storm. For the light to fulfill its purpose, it must be focused. Glass makers cut away layers of glass in precise form to create concentric circles. They add extra reflectors under those lenses to catch every last bit of the light and focus it into a tight narrow beam.
Similarly, once God places the Holy Spirit in us, and polishes away everything that would obscure His light, He works on the outside of our glass. Cutting in steps, removing extraneous activities, all designed to bring every bit of our light into a tight focus on glorifying Him through the specific lens He created us to be.
Refining for Strength
Much like a lighthouse, God created us to shine His light into a dark world. He rescued us from the wind and waves, and in turn He calls us to be rescuers. Even the strongest xenon lights cannot reach very far into the darkness, though they shine brightly. The focus of the Fresnel lenses makes the light stronger. It is strong enough to reach miles over the ocean to provide sailors warning, direction, and hope.
The last few weeks in the world have demonstrated how fragile life is, how unpredictable, how dark it can become. If you are in a time of refining, remember that He is making you clean. Show those near you His glorious light. He is making you focused. Join the strength of His light in you with other Christians, so the world will know His glory and find their way home. Be blessed and be a blessing.