Recently I was convinced by my brother to try my hand at the trade of blacksmith. I always thought it was just hammering on iron to make horseshoes and other implements.
However, when I began to just hammer the metal, I realized something that I had never even considered before.
Being a blacksmith is a rare form of art, I confess that before I gave it a try my definition of art consisted of sketching, sculpting, painting, and so on.
But as I saw in my mind what I wanted to create, I realized that it was essentially a very difficult form of painting.
When I paint something, I am just simply revealing what was already on the canvas, but when I began to forge I realized that I was just trying to reveal what was already contained in the metal.
However, it was much more difficult and I learned a few things as I attempted to create my project.
The first thing I realized was that sometimes in forging metal, a soft touch is needed. I thought you just picked up the hammer and forced the metal to bend, but sometimes it is just the slightest touch of the hammer that creates what you need.
Kind of like in life, sometimes a soft answer is the thing you need to bend even the most solid of hearts.
The second thing I learned was that sometimes you have to adjust your way of looking at the problem. I stood looking at a red hot horseshoe for about ten minutes, trying to figure out how to make the right shape, but the more I looked at it, the less it made sense. I went and asked my friend and he simply flipped over the horseshoe and as he began to work it from the other side, I realized that I had been looking at it from the wrong angle.
In the same way, sometimes we just have to adjust our line of sight and the problem we see will become a much more manageable feat.
The last thing I learned from the forge is that even the hardest of metals can be molded into a new shape if enough heat is applied.
In our lives when things get rough, it might just be that God is trying to mold us into something beautiful and our heart is just too hard to be adjusted easily. He applies the heat so He can create something beautiful. We can't lose faith, we can only wait and see the beautiful creation He is working on.
