Flame - Weathered

 I watch as the home owner is describing the unique look of the siding. It's a Japanese method called Yakisugi, which preserves wood by slightly charring the surface. He explains how this increases durability and makes the wood more resistant to rot, decay, insect infestation, weather, and fire, allowing it to last longer than most traditional ways of treating wood, like stain or paint. And I can't help but be fascinated. 

The man gives a quick demonstration of the method, flame-torch burning wood ever so slowly and delicately, and I'm wondering if perhaps this isn't the secret to understanding most of life's complicated tests and trials. Maybe most of us are just looking for the simpler way - slap some protectant on the surface and call the job good when, in reality, God is doing what this owner did... taking the longer route in order to fulfill the longer plan. What normally would take painters a couple days to treat took this guy over two weeks. Could it be that God's view and approach is the same? 

Some might argue that the Yakisugi technique defies a certain human instinct to burn the wood. When the whole idea is to have the new home look as perfect for as long as possible, why would you purposely imperfect it, right? It doesn't exactly make sense. Ah, but perhaps it does. By torching up the surface of the wood ever so gently, it builds a level of resilience and a barrier to things that might otherwise invade and destroy. And just maybe the challenges and pains and sufferings we are subjected to in this life are intended to build up our resistance to things that could decay and wreck us long-term. Maybe God knows that without hurt and loss and adversities of many sorts, we might begin to succumb to the soul-ruiners that exist along the way. The storms of life and the rot of sin and the fires we go through just might take us out... unless we are torched and toughed up a bit, strengthened through our pains so that we can last and go the distance in this human story. 

The burning can be, in its own right, unpleasant and uncomfortable. Unlike a created thing like wood that has no ability to feel, we're built with these amazing capacities to sense and know and feel things, whether they be good or bad. And it's nonsensical to assume that the Master's craftsmanship will be easy and lack pain. Of course, things will hurt as He takes these flames of life's fire and etches His name into us, brands us as His own, builds up a better us that can go through the furnace and the valleys and shadows and the hardships... and survive. 

God doesn't want a version of us that's going to collapse under the strain of life. He knows that any other way of treating us will result in a heart that's more vulnerable to the infestations and the beating of its intruders. Rather than weather and toughen up, it will strip and rot and fall apart and lose its hold... fail to fulfill its purpose. It needs protection. It needs a plan for how it will stand up to an assault. If a soul is going to last, it must prove itself. Show it has what it takes. And that can only come through the fire of life. 

Perhaps those Western Japanese were onto something profound: give something a head start on its weathering process, and it will last that much longer. Burn it a little and beat it up, and you'll end up with something that is meant to withstand almost anything. In order for your heart to handle the things that will try to ruin in, it has to be tested and tried under the faithful hand of the One who made it. You can't survive the inclement seasons up ahead unless you assume they're going to come at some point and prepare accordingly. 

So what then is a little fire, a little burning, if it's simply the means to a better end? What then is some pain if its part of building you into a stronger, better you? This doesn't mean you won't doubt the process sometimes, and it doesn't mean you won't wonder if the fire is really your friend after all. But it does mean that you know the Master is doing it for a greater purpose - that it isn't meaningless but rather, intentional. And who knows but that simple knowledge can be enough to carry us through one those days when it feels like the fire just won't let up.