Fused Together

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.

Isaiah 43:2 NIV

I have been wanting to get down to my workshop and play around with my kiln again- have I mentioned that I have a glass kiln? Yes it’s different from a pottery kiln and also different from the lampworking I do which I talked about in my post, The Refining Fire.

With kiln formed glass you cut pieces of glass, and arrange them accordingly and then start the kiln. Perhaps you have two sheets of glass that you are fusing together to become one thicker sheet of glass, or you could use a technique called slumping, where you take a piece of glass and melt it just enough that it melts just enough it seems like it is “slumping” down, into the shape of the mold. If you have a straight piece of glass and you want it to have a rounded shape like a dish, then slumping is what you do to get that shape!

Often glass artists use multiple of these techniques to make one item. You might fuse several different pieces together to make an abstract pattern, then in a different firing you could slump that glass into a dish, coaster or tray.

But you can’t just put your glass in the kiln, set it to a certain temperature and let it go- it’s a little more complex than that. You see if you set the temperature for a high temperature and let it go up and back quickly you might end up with just a large indistinguishable lump of glass at the end. If you cook the glass too low and too slowly then you might end up with a rough edged version of what you started with- the glass is stuck (fused) together and won’t come apart but that’s about it. It’s otherwise unchanged. For each desired outcome there is a specific series of temperatures, and holds (how long the glass sits at a certain temperature) that affects the desired outcome. How like our walk of faith does this process sound?

During our time in this fallen world we are destined to go through hard seasons. Some will be the results of past actions of ours and some of them will be the results of past actions of others. Some will have no discernible reason as to why we are going through them at all.

When we go through these seasons, or at least when I go through these seasons, my first thought is to try and fight it. To work harder, demand more of myself, and just like the two pieces of glass fused together at a slow temperature, I try to deny the process is happening. I don’t want change- I want things to stay the same.

How much better is it though, when things really get hot, to instead lean into our Heavenly Father. How much better be molded into His likeness, into the shape He would have us be. Then when circumstances become less intense we emerge on the other side, smooth, beautiful- a new creation altogether! I don’t want to just be fused together- I want to be melded into Him!

Things are heating up in our world. Tensions between countries seem to be bubbling towards an all time high. Things could dissipate- or not. We don’t know what lies ahead for us in the days ahead but this much we do know; God is still in control.

Now is the perfect time to ask yourself- how do you want to respond when the going gets tough? Are you ready to lean into your Heavenly Father like never before or will you sit in denial and try to pretend that things are different from what they really are?

Remember we serve a God of hope and peace! How much better our lives will be if, instead of resisting Him in the hard season we lean totally and completely, into Him and His will for our lives.

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