When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into the furnace in Daniel 3, Nebuchadnezzar asked, “Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?….But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.”

That “fourth” man was the pre-incarnate Christ.

Jesus doesn’t wait for us on the other side of our pain. God (Immanuel) is with us in our “furnace.”

nw