"And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God."
Zechariah 13:9
Talking about the last days again... very interesting stuff in these chapters. Cool that a third of the people survive the terrible destructions. (I am not sure if this is talking about the whole world, or just the Jerusalem area--might just be the Jerusalem area.) I think the part about refining is interesting. I took a jewelry class a few summers ago, and we got to do some of that... heating the silver until you could pour it into molds... and the impurities would burn off until you were left with some nice, but very very hot, liquid silver. I kind of like that image applied to us. If we are silver, that means that no matter how mixed up or dirty we get... we're still not *part* of the filth. When we are really tested, and put into the fire... every impurity will be consumed in the fire, but we... because we are made of something stronger and purer... will remain. That image feels pretty eternal to me. No matter what this world does to us, or what we get mixed up with in the world, no one can change what we are, or take away the opportunity we all have to be perfectly pure. It makes me kind of laugh at the "traditional" view of Hell being a place of eternal burning... if it is, for us... all it could do was purify the badness right out of us. :) Nothing eternal could be damaged. I love that... it makes me feel indestructible. :) I think the whole eternity thing itself is amazing... knowing that you are going to live forever. If you could keep that perspective with you all the time... there wouldn't be very few things to be afraid of. All the normal things that make us stressed... nothing. They can't touch our eternity. :) Maybe we would be a little calmer and kinder if we could always remember who we are, and the very few things that are really important. :)
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