Through the fire

I was having dinner with a sweet friend the other night. She is one of those people that when you are around her, Jesus becomes the topic of conversation. Maybe it is because she has gone through a lot in the last year or maybe she just loves Jesus in a way that is special. Either way, we were having dinner and we started talking about Jesus and what has been happening at our church. We both feel super blessed to be a part of the community of believers that exemplify God's grace and love, especially when we go through trials, like many of my brothers and sisters are going through right now with sickness, joblessness, financial woes, and broken relationships. We also understand that trials come, not only from seeing what was happening with our church, but also from our own lives and the trials we each have faced in the recent years.
I heard somewhere that if our lives were easy, we would never need to grow. I truly believe that, just reflecting on the fact that I have grown more in the last three years because of a hard time than when I was going through easy times. We can't be refine if we don't go through the fires of life. As we continued talking, this thought came to mind, the fact that we are refined by fire, there was another story in the Bible about fire. However, this fire was an actual fire that was meant to destroy and not refine, a means of death and not of life. It is the fire that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into by Nebuchadnezzar for their refusal to worship him. However, these three men were not destroy, but rather saved from it and are revealed to be in the fire with a fourth person, the preincarnate version of Jesus, about 700 some years before He entered the world. I sat for a second and made this connection: We will never go through the fire alone. Just like the three men in Daniel, someone is in the fire with us, not allowing it to consume us, but used for the Glory of God to make His name known. How sweet is it to know that we never take the road of trials alone, even when it feels that way.
We continued dinner and this same friend made the comment that I was wise. I don't know about that, I feel I have just been through a lot of fires that have taught me and changed me into something new. I am not wise, I just know this simple truth that most 3 year olds can sing: Jesus loves me, this I know. So next time I am in the fire, I will sing Jesus loves me and know He is there in the flames with me, teaching me until I am more than I was before. There will come a day when the fire is gone, but until that day, to sweet Jesus I will cling in the flames, in the rain, in the sunshine, and in the calm, until I am becoming more like the one who guards me from the fire. Praise God for the fires!