BRASS TO GOLD

On a whim I signed up for metal shop in eighth-grade. I learned that iron, a relatively soft metal, is turned into hardened steel by heat, pressure and temperature change. The iron is repeatedly heated and pressured, then placed in water to cool it quickly. This tempering process presses the ore’s molecules tightly together. Character is built the same way. No one enjoys the conflicts that forge us, yet it is in the furnace where we are made strong. Lord God, I marvel at Your wisdom and power to transform. You deliver me from the furnace of much affliction and turn iron to silver and brass to gold.