Day 16: Refining

"'See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me.  Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,' says the Lord Almighty."  Malachi 3:1

 **Special Note:  The computer I use to scan my drawings at home is on the fritz right now.  Hopefully, I'll be able to get the illustrations up again soon!**

Main Character:  Malachi
Scripture:  Malachi 3:1-6
Symbol:  Sun

With the soaring price of pure gold these days, there are articles all over the Internet about how to refine your own gold at home.  The process reads like something out of mad scientists laboratory.  You pretty much take your pieces of scrap gold from jewelry, old coins, etc. and coat it with two types of acid.  After letting it sit, you drain off the acid, collect what is left over, and soak it in uric acid.  You then rinse and filter it several more times and heat it with a blow torch before you are finally left with .999 percent pure gold.  Sounds pretty easy, don't you think?

I can't even imagine trying to complete the refining process at home with my two little ones and two cats running around!  The process seems to complicated and too hard to complete, yet our passage in Malachi today talks about how God is constantly willing to refine us and our behavior no matter what the circumstances.

Malachi was another prophet in the Old Testament that spoke to the nation of Israel after the exile.  He tried to show that people that they were constantly turning from God and breaking their promises of repentance.  If you have time to read other portions of this text, you will notice that he is the ultimate psychologist; he tries to get the people to realize what they are doing through questions that would prompt self-discovery.

This is our last portion of Old Testament text, and I find it amazing how well Malachi bridges the gap between the Old Testament promises of salvation and the fulfillment of that promise with the birth of the Christ child.  God has sent his messenger, just as promised, and He wants to work in us until we are like that .999 pure gold.  Now, there is no promise that this process will be easy.  As the new year approaches, look for opportunities to let this refining process begin in your life.

Ponder Points:

• Have you ever taken something that was unappealing to the eye and made it beautiful - maybe the Thanksgiving turkey or lumpy stones that you polished into gems when you were little?  Talk about this experience and what type of work went into the process.
• What do you think it means to say that God wants to refine us?
• He wants to remove all signs of sin and impurity from our lives.  Basically, He wants to mold us into Adam and Eve before the apple.  Now, we do not believe that this process will be completed while we are on earth, but we can work towards completion.

• In what areas do you feel you need some refinement?  What do you struggle with?  Discuss as a family one thing that you want to work on in the next year.  Write it down where it is visible and refer to this card throughout the year.