To be sad, sorrowful, or pained during the Christmas season is somewhat expected. Not so in summer, which makes life’s burdens especially hard to bear.

In The Letters of Samuel Rutherford, one of the classics of Christian devotional literature, we find the following quote:

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Rutherford did not write those words as a detached theologian in the comfort of his study. He endured imprisonment, exile, prolonged separation from his congregation, and the deaths of loved ones. The forge, the hammer, and the fire were not merely concepts to him; they described his own experience.

If we look at each part of the quote, part of the image represents something in the believer's life:

• The forge is the place of trial—the environment where God does His shaping.

• The fire represents suffering, testing, and affliction. Fire softens the metal so it can be formed.

• The hammer symbolizes the specific blows God permits—disappointments, losses, illness, persecution, unanswered prayers, and other hardships that shape our character.

The comfort of Rutherford's quote lies in its final phrase: "...are all in God's hands."

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Rutherford’s point affirms God's meticulous sovereignty over human suffering. Every degree of heat, every strike of the hammer, every moment in the forge is under the control of a loving Father who is crafting His children into the likeness of Christ.

Some may object to the notion of a loving Father allowing such things to befall His precious sons and daughters. But you must not forget what transpired on the hill where Jesus was crucified. If the Father did not spare His own beloved Son, how can we expect to live a life free from burdens? Rather, we must trust that even our deepest wounds were never outside of the realm of His love, but were embraced by it.

If we believe God is good, which we should, then whatever has been sifted through His hand must ultimately be for our good. Furthermore, we can trust that He will use it to accomplish His good purposes.

‍"Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow."  -James 1:17

So, what should our heart posture look like during the hardship? Rutherford answered, "When I am in the cellar of affliction, I look for the Lord's choicest wines."

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He was not alone in that conviction. J.C. Ryle likewise observed: "The choicest believers, who have been the sweetest and most heavenly, have all been tried in the furnace."

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Rutherford went one step further: "The cross of Christ is the sweetest burden that I ever bore; it is such a burden as wings are to a bird, or sails to a ship, to carry me forward to my harbor."
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May that be our mindset as well. Not that the Lord would necessarily remove every burden, but that He would use every burden to draw us so much nearer to Himself.

"He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge...” -Psalm 91:4

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Jesus said, "For those who have ears to hear, let them hear."