malachi 3:3

i get a lot of forwards, but this one i actually liked.

Malachi 3:3 reads:

"He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver."

This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God.

One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study.

That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver.

As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities.

The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says: "He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver."

She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined.

The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.

The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, "How do you know when the silver is fully refined?"

He smiled at her and answered, "Oh, that's easy - when I see my image in it."

If today you are feeling the heat of the fire, remember that God has his eye on you and will keep watching you until He sees His image in you.

GOD doesn't test us. HE doesn't punish us. HE purifies us.

in the garden of eden, baby

here's a picture of bec & i at a church halloween costume party this past sunday night.


oh yeah, adam & eve. a lot of people said that they had the same idea, but didn't know how to execute it. but we did it.

there was a contest. you were supposed to dress up as a famous couple. and we won third place. we got ripped off. second place was seigfried & roy. pretty clever. but first was miss piggy & kermit. they bought a frog costume and put on a pig nose. how creative was that? i was so disappointed.

skin disease

i think i have leprosy.

i don't want to alarm anyone. but my skin is falling off. seriously.

you know how when you get a blister and you pop it, there's the flap of skin that's usually quite thick. not like sunburn peeling but like a full layer of dermis. that's what this is like. it's pretty gross. but it's kinda cool, too.

it's all over my hands and fingers. big, thick flakes of skin peeling off.

i have two theories on this. one i've already mentioned, the leprosy thing. the other which is probably more likely is hard work.

the hands of a designer, of an artist, don't see much abrasive work. for the past 3 years i've dealt almost solely with pencils and paper and matboard and glue. none of these are real hard on your hands. i do have xbox calouses on my thumbs. funny, skin's not peeling there.

now, carpenter's notoriously have tough, leathery skin. since that's what i do 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, i guess that's the process i'm going through. sloughing off the old, baby soft skin and getting down to the tough stuff.

i'll keep you posted on any skin related developments. not that anyone but myself actually cares.