Meditation: Refining

Divine Burning
From CS Lewis' anthology of the writings of George Macdonald

He will shake the heavens and earth, that only the unshakeable may remain. He is a consuming fire, that only that which cannot be consumed may stand forth eternal. It's just the nature of God so terribly pure that it destroys all that is not pure as fire, which demands like purity in our worship. He will have purity. It is not that the fire will burn us if we do not worship thus; yea, it will go on burning within us after all that is foreign to it has yielded to its force, no longer with pain and consuming, but as the highest consciousness of life. The presence of God.

He is like a refiner’s fire, and he shall purify

Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see the Father

O Thou who camest from above

The Pure celestial fire to impart

Kindle a flame of sacred love

On the mean altar of my heart

There let it for they glory burn

With inextinguishable blaze

And trembling to its source return

In humble prayer and fervent praise

Ready for all They perfect will

My acts of faith and love repeat

Til death Thy endless mercy seal

And make the sacrifice complete

Jesus says: You must be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect.

Impossible! – too hard a burden to lay on our shoulders, simply piling guilt on guilt until following Jesus becomes a miserable burden, a Sisyphean task crushing and condemning us.

The Adam & Eve myth speaks of an innocence and purity in the Garden of Eden. The myth - a story to show a reality - speaks of the loss of this purity when Adam & Eve knew good and evil. They are banished from the garden but the memory would always be with them. This loss is what we recognise within oursleves - hence the truth of the myth. There is a spiritual void within us that cannot be filled - to be free of guilt, to be full of love, a return to the garden where the Father walks in the cool of the evening. We are caught between our natural selves and spiritual selves. Jesus is simply shining a light on this.

He sets before us the purity of the Father's love, revealing the weakness of our own, contaminated as it is by our selfish ego. Gold contaminated with base metal needs refining.

Dare we ask to be refined?