The newest Mormon Messages video, released Tuesday by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, provides a visual for what the Bible calls “a refiner’s fire.” Showing a refiner carefully creating a rose by bending and burning an ordinary material into something beautiful, the video allows viewers to understand both the literal context of the metaphor along with a real-life example of the principle.
“The refiner’s fire is not a comfortable place to be,” the YouTube description of the video states. “It involves intense heat and repeated hammering, but it is in the refiner’s fire that we are purified and prepared to meet God.”
Helping viewers understand the application of this principle, the video features a woman, Kim Martin, who lost her husband and two sons to cancer while her daughter also battled cancer. She shares what she has learned amidst her time of grief and suffering while explaining that her trials have increased her ability to find joy in life.
“To me, it’s like Newton’s Law: ‘For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction,’ ” Kim said. “Equal and opposite. So I think the greater our sorrow is, the greater our capacity is to feel joy.”
The message is based on Elder Quentin L. Cook’s October 2011 general conference address, “Songs They Could Not Sing,” in which he discussed the “important principles that allow us to face tragedies with faith and confidence.”
“The refiner’s fire is real,” Elder Cook said. “And qualities of character and righteousness that are forged in the furnace of affliction perfect and purify us and prepare us to meet God.”
Email: mjones@deseretdigital.com