One of the many benefits of living in the Philippines are the guys who come around to sharpen knives or fix fans. No needing to drive somewhere to find a shop.
Yesterday, the knife sharpener was on our street.
I asked him to sharpen our kitchen knives and our bolo.
He saw that the handle of our bolo was not good (it slipped off easily - not good when swinging it back to cut a shrub or something!)
So,
he fashioned a new handle for us out of two empty 1-liter toyu (soy sauce) bottles that were made of heavier plastic than pop bottles.
He used one of the bottles as the core of the handle; melting the plastic over the flame of our propane burners and molding it onto the bolo knife blade.
Cutting the plastic melted onto the knife blade
Shaping the handle over the heat of flame
Cooling the handle in water
The finished product!
And isn't that what Jesus does to us? Puts us in the flame of trials to melt us into Him image; to shape us into His likeness! Refiner's fire!
Malachi 3 For he will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver.
Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness,...
1 Peter 1
6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.