Puffed Up Marshmallows

I was in the mood to make some rice krispy bars. But I ran into some bad marshmallows.

Maybe they were old or just a bad batch. Whatever the case, I found myself staring into a pan of marshmallows and learning a spiritual lesson as well.

Normally, marshmallows don't take long before they start melting. These marshmallows did not melt. I turned the heat up. No luck. I cranked it up even more. No luck.

In fact, they just started getting puffed up! What had initially started out as marshmallows filling the bottom of the pan began to rise up to the top. The marshmallows began to grow to five times their normal size.

As I was stirring this pan full of stubborn, puffed up marshmallows, I thought of how sometimes God applies heat to our lives. These situations are supposed to refine us. "See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction." Isaiah 48:10 But sometimes, we don't want that kind of heat in our lives so we become stubborn and puffed up in our own arrogance. Instead of melting in His furnace, we become bigger in our own eyes and we begin to call the shots. But we have it all wrong. "For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted." Matt 23:12 We will be humbled one way or another.

I continued stirring those stubborn marshmallows. But I was worried they might explode. How big can those marshmallows get before they end up making a mess everywhere?

I dumped them in the trash and went for some marshmallows that melted, like they were supposed to. But those stubborn marshmallows taught me a lesson. When God applies heat, learn the lesson and allow it to refine you. Don't get puffed up.

"Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up." James 4:10