Final thoughts on Hebrews 2:10
For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. NKJV
Steel is produced iron plus fire. Soil is produced by rock plus heat and erosion. Linen is flax plus the water that cleans it, the comb that separates it, the flail that pounds it, and the shuttle that weaves it. Likewise, the development of Christ-like character requires a plus attached to it, for godly character is not made through luxurious living but through suffering. And the world does not forget people of godly, Christ-like character.
Many years ago, a mother brought home a crippled boy with a hunched back into her home as a companion for her own son. She warned her son to be very careful not to refer to the other boy’s deformity, since this was a sensitive matter to him, and she encouraged him to play with his new friend as if he were a normal child. But after listening to her son play with him for a few minutes, she heard him ask his companion, “Do you know what that is on your back?” The crippled boy was embarrassed, hesitated a moment, but before he could respond, the son answered the question for him by saying, “It is the box that holds your wings, and someday Jesus is going to break it open, and you will fly away to heaven to be with Him.”
Someday God is going to reveal to every Christian that the very things they now rebel against are the instruments He has used to perfect their character and to mold them into perfection, so they may later be used as polished stones in His heaven yet to come.
Cortland Myers
Suffering is a wonderful fertilizer for the roots of character. The great objective of this life is character, for it is the only thing we can carry with us into eternity. And gaining as much of the highest character possible is the purpose of our trials.
Austin Phelps
The mountain of vision is won by no other road than the one covered with thorns.
L.B. Cowman