Refined

Three months ago, the landscape was barren. Fire had swallowed up dry prairie grasses like a voracious high school football team at an all-you-can-eat buffet.

But some 90 days later, the green grasses are dotted with prairie flowers in yellows and blues amid shoots of green.

What looked dead has new life. 

Not all the signs of the fire are gone. There are still blackened remnants, if you look closely at the base of the new green growth.

On March 27, we intended to burn CRP grass. The burn started out fine, but the fire jumped a fire break, and we ended up unintentionally burning an additional 80 acres of land belonging to other property owners.

A few days after our unintended excitement, Randy planted a mixture of Forbes grasses in the sooty field as the CRP contract requires. Only a few short weeks later, green growth was already emerging.
Now that is the very picture of perseverance, isn't it? Here is how the landscape looked on April 10, only a couple weeks after the fire.

And below is the transformation by June 16.

Maybe we humans aren't so different. We all have "fires" in our lives. We have times where the landscape feels as desolate as that blackened earth. We are lonely. We face health problems. We're concerned about our kids or our jobs or our community. The fires are different for all of us. But we all have them. We can get hot under the collar. We can feel like we're walking through flames.We can feel that all-consuming heat and wind surround us in a way where it's even hard to breathe.

But God can use those times to draw us ever closer to Him.

"I will bring them into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name, and I will answer them; I will say, 'They are my people,' and they will say, 'The Lord is our God.' "

Zechariah 13: 9

The verse in Zechariah says we are to call upon God's name in those times. And when we do, we'll be refined.

Fires get mighty hot. I guarantee you I didn't much like the helpless feeling I had on that March evening, as we felt the heat and heard the whoosh of the flames as fire gobbled up everything in its path.

And I don't much like the "fires" that come into my personal life either. But God promises to be there - guiding me and directing me and making sure there is new green growth on the other side.

I think, too, of the potter and the clay. Pottery can't be used until it's fired.

Pottery is made by forming a clay body into objects of a required shape and heating them to high temperatures in a kiln to induce reactions that lead to permanent changes, including increasing their strength and hardening and setting their shape.

From Wikipedia

Trials by fire can have that same effect on us as followers of Jesus. Trials can make us stronger and set our shape as His followers. Or the fire of life's trials can cause us to crack and make us useless for His plan.

The words of James make more sense in the context of the Potter's process.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.

James 1:2-3, NIV

There is no joy in the trial. When we are in a trial, God wants us to emerge strengthened and beautiful and useful. The lump of clay that is me and the lump of clay that is you has infinite potential because we have an infinite God that is patient and good. I pray that through the fires of life, we will allow Him to shape us in His image.

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After fire crews responded to our out-of-control fire, I took treats to the four different volunteer units who helped us, including this new recipe, Peanut Butter Cup Fluffernut Blondies.

Or, if you're looking for a cookie with a patriotic flair for 4th of July, try this chocolate brownie which I dressed up with as much bling as a fireworks-filled sky by topping with chocolate icing and star-shaped sprinkles.