When a glass vase is formed there needs to be a glass blower, right? It’s not going to take form on it’s own. It needs the glass blower to be in control of making, shaping, and blowing the glass into just the right shape and design he wants that glass to take. Right? So it is with God and his child. God showed me that He is the Glass Blower and we, his children, are the glass. When I looked into the actual process of glass blowing and how it was done I was amazed at the similarities as to how God shapes his child. I’d like to share with you and invite you into this process.
Here’s what the host of the video I was watching said about glass blowing “ Glass blowing is full of beauty, function, and inspiration. There's suspense, tension, and danger in the glass blowing process, after all they are working with fire. There's craftsmanship like you've never seen. All of that to make a beautiful piece of art and yet so fragile, with one wrong move it could shatter and break.”
Now when I heard that, I saw those words written all over God’s transformation/sanctification process. The time when he takes us through a whole new birthing process, and creates a new person. God’s process, although it doesn’t feel good is also full of beauty, function, and inspiration. God's process is going to produce a child that displays His beauty, that child is going to have learned how to function with in that beauty, and God is going to use it as inspiration to and for others. Maybe some of you have gone through this process or are going through it now. If that’s the case you can attest to the fact that this process is not fun. It’s hard and it is filled with suspense, tension, and danger while you’re in the fire. God's craftsmanship in our lives is like nothing we’ve ever seen! And He takes us through all of that because He loves us and it’s necessary in order to make us into a beautiful piece of art that will bear the image of Christ and bring God glory.
The glass blowing process is done and made in what is called the “hot shop”. The working temp of the furnace is 2100 degrees F. That is really really hot! Do you ever feel God turning up the temp. and the flames getting really hot in your own life? God may have you in the “hot shop”. Just as that glass needs to be formed and worked on in the “hot shop” God puts you and I in the “hot shop”. Sometimes we’re in that hot shop for 13 years. Like my husband and I. It’s up to God how long you need to be in the “hot shop”. Joseph (in the bible) was in the “hot shop” for 13 years being shaped and molded before he was birthed into the new person God wanted him to be. Listen, if God is turning up the heat in your life he’s in the middle of a very important process and it’s important for us to work with God.
Glass blowers also have another furnace called the “Glory hole” or “reheating drum” that is 2250 degrees F- used to make larger pieces and to work at them a long time. I had to laugh a little when I heard this because I have been in the “glory hole”! God has taken me, the glass, and put me right in that “glory hole” and has had to work on me a long time. Have you? There might be someone listening right now that feels like “how long is this going to go on...can’t i ever get a break...” I want you to hear right now that if God has put you in that “glory hole” it’s because he’s working on you and shaping you and that’s where the work is going to be done that will bring glory to God! You can bet when you come out of that hole, all that went on in that hole was part of God making the glass that will bring him glory. That’s where God gets all the glory! I’m assuming they call it the "glory hole" because it’s the place where the long hard work has to be done on the glass in order to create the glory in the piece that the blower wants in the end.
Then if the glass blower wants color on the piece he takes colored chunks and rolls the heated glass over them and reheats the glass again in the drum. For me God said “Ok Marsha, now I want to add some chunks of humility, more love, more compassion, understanding of others, understanding of yourself and your own sin, repentance, and more truth and faith.” And he rolled me into those chunks and reheated me again, back into the “glory hole”.
Glass blowers have to use many different tools, along with blowing, to shape the glass, and the heat from the glory hole allows them to shape the vessel that they want. The heat from our own “glory hole” is necessary to allow God to shape our vessel the way it needs to be for our good and God’s glory.
There are many tools for different things the blower may need to use:
One tool helps to shape the glass so they can get the core of the glass hot and it blows out evenly.
One is an old wet newspaper that allows them to shape the glass with their hand.
One allows them to cut and one to grab the glass.
One is just a standard tweezers to pick at stuff.
God too, uses many different tools on us.Take a look:
He has effective tools he uses to shape us and get at our core.
He has the right tool that will allow him to shape us with his loving hand.
He has tools he uses when he needs to grab and cut something out of us or our lives...such as impurities, sin, strongholds, bondage, prison bars.
And just a standard tweezers to pick out things that need to be removed.
These tools can look a little different in each individual life.
After the glass piece is shaped and finished it's still relatively hot. About 1000 degrees. The glass blower can't just leave it out on the table b/c of thermal shock it would crack. So they carry it and put it in what is called a Kneeler that keeps it at 900 degrees to cool down slowly for 12 hrs or over night. This process is called ‘a kneeling’-taking a high temp to a low temp slowly to relieve all the stresses related to the heat. After the glass is cooled off you're left with a beautiful piece of art.
The video pointed out that the process is very captivating, and when you look at a piece of blown glass you have much more appreciation for it because now you know how much it's gone through to be made.
After we’ve been in the “hot shop”, in an out of the “glory hole", shaped and formed, worked on with God’s hands and tools, He continues to tenderly care for us. As we are still hot from all the fire and the temperature of the “glory hole”, he doesn’t leave us alone to experience thermal shock and crack. He tenderly picks us up and carries us to the kneeler where he helps us to go from that high temp we were just in, slowly to a low temp so that we can relieve all the stresses that were on us due to the heat. Through this process we will see God for who He really is, see his attributes clearly, feel his tender love for us, and KNEEL in great awe and reverence, and humility to the Everlasting Father.
We will marvel at how he took a once balled up slab of glass and tenderly and lovingly took it through the “hot shop”, never once leaving our side. The glass blower, we’ve seen, has to be very attentive to the glass not leaving it for a moment. You can be sure that your loving Father has never left you for a moment!
Once you’re cooled, you and others will see a beautiful piece of art crafted by the very hand of God, displaying the glory of the Creator. We won’t reach full beauty until we see Jesus face to face and our sanctification is complete, but if we belong to God through his son Jesus Christ, we can watch God make our vessel more beautiful and new as time goes on.
Rest Assured!
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