LAST YEAR WHILE hiking in the mountains of North Georgia, I came across a very large unusually shaped brick…

The brick was almost completely covered in green, fur-like vegetation.  After I scraped the green goop away, I carefully inspected the brick and discovered that it was a brownish-yellow color instead of the traditional red.  I also discovered some unusual markings and identification numbers on the brick.  When I returned home, I was able to do some research and found that this particular type of brick was used in the early-to-mid eighteen hundreds to construct smelting ovens.  These ovens melted and purified gold after it was mined from the mountains of North Georgia and Carolina.  The purpose of the melting process was to remove any impurities that were attached to the gold.

THOUGHTS: God compares the difficulties and trials that each of us must experience in our lives to the purification or smelting process that gold goes through in order to become valuable.  It is kind of like the refining process that the old yellow brick had been a part of over a hundred years ago.  The brick had actually facilitated the fire’s ability to remove impurities from the gold after melting, and thereby increased its value.  And more than likely some of the very gold which was purified in that particular type of brick smelting oven is still around today, possibly in the form of antique jewelry that has been passed from one generation to another.  (Mitch Temple)

“The genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”  1 Peter 1:7

Mike Benson