Summertime is a season of vacations and the Shenandoah Valley is often a destination for folks from outside our area. They come for the incredible natural beauty, the multi-layered history, and the many events. And if they’ve glanced at a county map, they should also notice the echoes of an industry now dormant.
Names like Columbia Furnace, Van Buren Furnace, Elizabeth Furnace and others remind us of when the valley was a major iron producer. Although many of these structures have vanished, a few still invite visitors to remember their roaring fires. While we can become a bit nostalgic about this chapter from our past, let’s allow it to teach us a spiritual truth.
Imagine a clump of iron ore, Lumpy Larry, resting inside the earth on a mountain slope above Fort Valley. And then one day, he hears voices followed by scraping and hammering above. It’s not long until, for the first time ever, he sees the sunshine as the overburdening soil and trees are peeled away. Picks and shovels proceed to pry him loose from his peaceful bed and raise him from his slumber. He is none-to-happy about this rude disturbance.
Larry is loaded with other lumps onto a horsedrawn wagon and carted down the mountain on a ride that is rougher and bumpier than his previous condition was comfortable and calm. Eventually the horses whoa beside a massive stone pyramid that is belching smoke and sparks. Larry can feel the heat radiating from it, and, as the day goes by, he is moved closer and closer to the furnace’s open top. He watches as bushels of charcoal are dumped into the yawning mouth of the hungry beast.
And then it’s his turn. A sweat-drenched man shovels Larry and his friends from the wagon and heaves them into the blazing fire. He can’t believe the pain. With temperatures exceeding 3,000 degrees, he’s overwhelmed with fear and anger. His hot wrath rages against those who ruthlessly dug him up, the horses who pulled his wagon, and the weary laborer who pitched him into this inferno.
But then, in the midst of the flames, Larry notices something. The impurities that had always clung so tightly to him were melting away. He suddenly feels stronger and purer than ever before. He senses a freedom from pride, vanity, and worldly values that had cemented him to his useless existence deep in the earth for so long. He realizes that the fire is liberating him from what had hindered him.
Just then a door of escape opens and he flows out the bottom into a trench with the rest of his relatives and friends. There in the sand he begins to cool and regain a solid shape. Larry is lumpy no longer.
After laying there a while, some workers lift him up and load him onto another wagon for an even longer ride to the riverbank where he is transferred to a ferry for a nice smooth float. Next is a train trip to Richmond through beautiful countryside he’s never seen before. Eventually, he is reheated and fashioned into a plow that finds its way back to Fort Valley where he helps a farmer feed his young family.
As he slices through the spring soil cutting a furrow for seeds, he realizes that his trials and hardships were for his good and everyone else’s benefit as well. Instead of a useless lump, Larry is now a valuable tool that can produce much good for many.
Hebrews 12 reminds us that God disciplines those He loves. When we go through fiery trials, it means that He sees something valuable in us and He melts away those characteristics and qualities that keep us from becoming that all He desires. May we not become bitter in our furnaces but allow Him to purify us, and, like Larry, remove our lumps and bring out our best qualities making us stronger and more useful. Blessings, George