Most people buying gold ornaments spend much time selecting fine designs but they rarely pause to find out how pure that gold is and how it is purified.
Though not one for wearing any gold myself, while doing minor research on “how” gold is purified, I came across two different descriptions: one, a complicated scientific terms and the other, a simpler one. It speaks of three steps: pulverising the ore, along with dirt and rock minerals; washing and sifting that powder several times and finally putting it through the furnace.
Gold or the golden colour, besides being used for ornaments, is also used to create something outstanding and shining. No wonder then that gold is used in temples, mosques, churches, viharas, and gurdwaras. Obviously, we want our places of worship to be the best, having possibly the purest and most expensive metal available.
One of the metaphors used in the Bible, as also elsewhere, for purifying one’s character and bringing out one’s best qualities, is that of gold being refined and purified in fire.
The Christian belief is that God, who has made us for himself, tries to draw the best out of us by cleansing us, using the three steps employed in purifying gold. But only if we let him! Like the ore covered with dirt and rock material, the gold in us collects dross or rubbish along life’s journey. God sometimes uses tough means on us to grind such negativities in us. While these may appear as problems to us, it is the first step God uses to make us like pure gold.
God then finds ways of washing and sifting us as thoroughly as possible by providing us His Word and teachings through our scri-ptures. The final step, often the most painful one, is to put us through furnace. “I will thoroughly purge away your dross and remove all your impurities”, is what God does, as recorded in the Bible. God leaves the choice entirely to us, to let him accomplish his purifying action in us.”
