Part 3: the Blacksmith
Part 3: Recalling my experience with the blacksmith at Acadian Village
{ to read Part 1, click here }
Metallurgy is the “technology of metals.” The job of a Metallurgist is to know metals - what they are made of, what they can withstand, how they react, and how many changes they can undergo. A blacksmith, a type of Metallurgist, usually works specifically with iron or steel. Using a forge, an anvil, a hammer, and various handling tools, a blacksmith can manipulate metal using fiery heat. At the perfect temperature, the metal does not melt or molten, it simply becomes malleable.
Steel, a unique and diverse alloy, is used to make many things: automobiles, ships, infrastructures, appliances, cutlery, and much more. With a slightly higher carbon content, it is different than iron because it is more durable and more predictable. There is great beauty in the transformation of steel. What may have been an old horseshoe, a railroad spike, or even a scrap of rebar is now a pocket knife, a corkscrew, or a piece of jewelry.
The most beautiful feat of a blacksmith is his authority over the metal. Using fire, he is able to make malleable what is ordinarily not. It is fascinating to watch a blacksmith work as he hammers life into the piece. He is in control, he exerts great force, and he is accurate. It is also loud, hot, and messy; sparks fly, plumes of smoke erupt, and transformation occurs. Sounds a little bit like life, doesn’t it?
Through high temperatures and under great force, we are forged into better beings. Through a wide variety of events in our lives, we are twisted, upset, flattened, tapered, and curved into beauty. We become malleable. And, sometimes it gets messy, dirty, and loud, but that is the art of blacksmithing – the change that inevitably occurs.
God, the ultimate blacksmith, knows precisely what we can handle. He knows what moves us and what makes us. And, He is even aware of how much pressure we can endure. Under his authority, and with his great and diligent care, it is often those events in our lives that burn the most that forge us into a more beautiful version of ourselves. Though we may think the heat is unbearable and the forging is painful, it is the means to our greatest change.
In praying over this week’s entry, I learned something I did not know. Did you know that the word steel also carries another meaning? In the verb form, it means to “mentally prepare (oneself) to do or face something difficult.” And, since there are no ironies in life, only perfectly-planned, God-sized occurrences, I am led to believe that God needed me here. He needed me to have this visual, to recall this memory, and to make the mental connection that the most difficult things I have ever encountered in my life turned out to be the best and truest test of my character.
Surrendering to God’s forging in me has certainly been the challenge in this season of my life. There have been moments of great resistance from me accompanied with panic attacks and full toddler-sized tantrums. But, there has been some real beauty, too. To feel myself love deeper, empathize farther, surrender bigger, and to relinquish more control over my life has been truly miraculous. I cannot help but recall that famous verse from Corinthians: “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” In hindsight, the events in my life that have changed me the most were the ones that burned like hell. I’d also like to think that God made something pretty beautiful out of my heart in those very same seasons.
