Receiving His Image

A well known story by an unknown author reads as follows:

A 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.’

In my quest to know the Savior, I have concluded that we know Jesus best when we put ourselves in his hands and allow Him to work with us.  It is never easy to be held to the refining fire of repentance and adversity but He will make of us more than we can ever make of ourselves.  It is only by wholly giving ourselves over to him that we can “receive his image in our countenances” (see Alma 5: 14).  He will guide us in the changes we need to make in our lives.  He will lead us to the people whom we can influence for good.  We will be changed, converted, even born again.  Our prayers will change from self centered seires of requests to that of earnestly seeking the will of the Lord in our life.  A modern day apostle of the Lord said the following:

“The object of our prayers should not be to present a wish list or a series of requests but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is eager to bestow, according to His will and timing” (Elder David A. Bednar).

When we seek God’s will above our own He is able to imbue us with more of his power.  To the prophet Nephi in the Book of Mormon he declared:

“Blessed art thou, Nephi, for those things which thou hast done; for I have beheld how thou has with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people.  And thou hast not feared them, and hast no sought thine own life, but has sought my will, and to keep my commandments.  And now, because thou has done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee might in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will” (Helaman 10:4-5).

Ultimately when we know the Lord so well that we can make his will our own and he knows and trusts us that we will do so, we will live our life on a higher, eternal plane.  It will never be easy but it will be filled with the joy of walking side by side with our friend, our companion, our redeemer.  Even Jesus Christ, the Son of God.