Read this short, interesting reflection on a true-life experience of rising from the ashes
Someone once said, if you remove the rocks from a brook, it would lose its song. Well, that holds true for you and me as well.
Rising from the Ashes
Author Scott Walker tells of the time he was asked to help some friends to dig through the ashes of their house after a fire.
When they arrived, all that was standing was a portion of the outer brick wall.
Where the piano once stood lay only a pile of ashes and twisted wire. Nothing had survived the blaze. But while sifting through the debris, Walker came across a tiny, china bluebird.
Refined by Fire
He wiped away the soot to find that the colours were still bright. A few hairline cracks had formed in the glaze but, beyond that, it remained intact.
Walker wrote: “As I gazed down at the bird’s small beak and two black eyes, I wanted to weep. If only this little bluebird could talk, what a story it would tell. A story of the heat of the night, of terror, of survival against great odds.”
“And then the crucial question hit me. Why did this china bluebird survive? It had survived the fire because it had been tested by fire,” he continued.
And so it is with human beings who have been refined in life’s raging furnace. They are tougher, harder, and more resilient than those who have never faced difficulty and loss.
That understanding may help us cope the next time the heat is turned up on our tranquil little world.
Brought to you by:
© 2013. Reprinted with permission from Focus on the Family Singapore.
For more resources on parenting and marriage, please visit us at www.familly.org.sg
ADVERTISEMENTS