Bar of Steel

"A bar of steel worth $5, 

when wrought into horseshoes, is worth $10.

If made into needles, it is worth $350;

if into penknife blades, it is worth $32,000;

if into springs for watches it is worth $250,000.

What a drilling the poor bar must undergo to be worth this! But the more it is manipulated, the more it is hammered, and passed through the fire, and beaten and pounded and polished, the greater the value.

May this parable help us to be silent, still, and long-suffering. Those who suffer most are capable of yielding most; and it is through pain that God is getting the most out of us, for His glory and the blessing of others."

--Selected 

(from Streams in the Desert, Oct. 24)