“For You, God, tested us, You refined us like silver.” Psalms 66:10

Toward the end of February I attended a high school basketball game. Sitting in the stands with a couple of friends, I turned to one of them and made a modest attempt at small talk with the universal opener of “What’s new?” Since we talk on the phone regularly, she chuckled hearing that question because I most likely already knew the answer to that question. However, she responded with, “Just waiting for syrup season.” Walking through a season of so much unknown personally, I quickly responded with, “I’m waiting for any other season than the one I’m in.” We both laughed at that statement and continued on with conversation amidst the varying levels of gymnasium sounds that were all around us.

A few days after that conversation, I felt drawn to research the process of making maple syrup. Specifically, I wondered what biblical aspects one could derive from the process. I called my friend who was more than willing to explain it all because producing maple syrup was not only her family’s small business adventure but it was something she was passionate about as well. She explained how the trees are tapped to draw out sap. When the bags are full they are taken to a building called the sugar shack where the sap is boiled down and made into syrup. She compared her family’s very traditional process to that of mass producers who don’t tap the trees but vacuum them in order to increase the amount of sap collected. She explained the comparison because the traditional/manual way of producing syrup was more timely but produced a richer and tastier product than anything the mass producers could make. I took plenty of notes but couldn’t quite pinpoint any key biblical aspects tied to maple syrup. So I prayed for insight and let the idea go.

Fast forward to last Friday, (five days ago from the date of this post and nearly two months after that phone call with my friend. Last Friday I found myself in a hospital emergency department, waiting on the outcome of my daughter’s spinal tap. For over a week she had developed symptoms of tingling in her hands and feet that moved into her legs and arms and was accompanied with excruiating pain. She was hospitalized for three days and screened for multiple sclerosis. All labs and scans came back clear so she was discharged. On the day of discharge she was unable to walk without the assistance of a walker. The following day she was seen by her primary care provider. She was told there was nothing physically wrong with her but that her condition was 100% psychological. At this point she was paralyzed but told it was “all in her head.” Thus, I took her to the local emergency room where we stayed for three days waiting for an inpatient mental health facility to accept her.

While in that ER, her condition continued to deteroriate. I was at a loss as to how to help her. I also couldn’t understand how her brain somehow had shutdown to the point that she convinced herself she couldn’t walk. Thankfully, one ER doctor and one neurologist kept digging for answers and after she had lost her leg reflexes, a spinal tap was ordered. The test results led to the diagnosis of Guillain-Barre Syndrome. Turns out, there was 100% something physically wrong with my daughter and left untreated, could have quickly worsened or become fatal.

After the spinal tap was finished, my daughter had to lay flat for two hours. She had been given some medicine to sedate her in order to keep her still. To allow her time to rest, I stayed in the waiting room area. While in there, a nurse friend of mine, who just happened to be visiting my daughter at the time they decided to do the spinal tap and stayed with her during the procedure, came to visit me. When I mentioned I was surprised with how long the procedure took she explained that a spinal tap draws fluid off the spinal cord in the form of a slow drip. She further added, “It’s like harvesting maple syrup.” That statement was all I needed to recognize what God was speaking through the process of maple syrup.

God sees and knows everything about us, especially all the impurities we hold within us. These impurities can look like bad habits, self-destructive thinking, wrong friendships or relationships, etc. These things can weigh us down or even interfere with God’s calling for us. God longs to draw them out just as dross is drawn off of silver during the refinement process. At times, God draws things out of us suddenly. Every day someone wakes up and has a “sudden” realization that they need God, need to change or need to repent. God changed Saul into Paul through a “suddenly” moment. But more often than suddenly, God’s refinement process in us is like a slow drip similar to a tapped maple tree or the process of a drawing fluid off the spinal cord. David’s life is a prime example of God’s drawing out process. Time and time again, David found Himself in a situation that He had to wait on God to redeem. God didn’t do it suddenly, He did it in the form of a slow drip. But He always sustained David during the waiting providing him the strength needed to endure until God brought deliverance.

What God pulls out of us He can use to diagnose what’s crippling us spiritually. Depending on what He draws out, He can also “boil it down” into something more beneficial to us that ultimately brings Him glory. Most people liken refinement to that of being in a fire, melted down into the Jesus’ image. But another perspective of refinement is the act of the Holy Spirit tapping into us to draw out all that keeps us from being who God created us to be.

If you are in a refinement season, be encouraged that God is doing a new thing in you and your circumstances. If you’re not seeing His hand in your circumstances, He could still be drawing things out of you. If you’re feeling like your in the fire, it could be God boiling you down into the creation He made you to be. If you’re praying for God to change someone’s hardened heart, keep believing He will do it. God has already tapped that hardened heart and is drawing everything out that caused it to petrify. But just like the process of tapping maple trees or conducting a spinal tap, God’s refinement process happens at the pace of a slow drip. Just as a maple syrup producer covers the spile with a bag and walks away, trusting the spile to do its job, we must cover the person in prayer and walk away, trust God to do His job also.

Don’t grow impatient and try to vacuum all of it out of yourself or the person you’re praying for. Just as mass production produces a less quality product than traditional boiling, our attempts to manufacture our own miracles will not produce the outcome we are praying and hoping for. Trust God and trust His process. Just as a syrup maker has to keep a careful watch over the sap during its boiling process to ensure the product doesn’t burn, our Maker keeps a careful watch on us and will keep us from being burned up in His refinement process also.