Faith From the Fire


At Yellowstone each year, the rain and melted snow seeps into the earth. Cold to begin with, the water is quickly warmed by heat radiating from a partially molten magma chamber deep underground.

After moving throughout this underwater “plumbing” system, the now hot water rises up through a system of small fissures. Here it also interacts with hot gases charged with carbon dioxide rising up from the magma chamber. As some of the carbon dioxide is dissolved in the hot water, a weak, carbonic acid solution is formed.

In the Mammoth area, the hot, acidic solution dissolves large quantities of limestone on its way up through the rock layers to the hot springs on the surface. Above ground and exposed to the air, some of the carbon dioxide escapes from the solution. Without it, the dissolved limestone can’t remain in the solution, so it re-forms into a solid mineral. This white, chalky mineral is deposited as the travertine that forms the terraces. (From https://www.yellowstonepark.com/things-to-do/mammoth-hots-springs-inside-cave)

Why all the explanation? Because the beauty we see in Mammoth is only as a result of extreme heat, pressure and acidic interaction. If you are going through the "heat," feeling "pressure" in your life or perhaps you've been involved in "acidic" situations or relationships, please know that these can be used by God to make something beautiful in you and of you. It is in enduring the trials that your faith is purified, you grow closer to God, you learn the meaning of true joy, and glory in the salvation that is yours now and for eternity.

Peter wrote the following to believers:

In all this (new birth and inheritance into God's kingdom) you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1:6-9)

Mammoth Hot Springs
Yellowstone National Park

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