A Twilight Musing

                      A grain of wheat and a grape are fragile fruits.  By themselves they will neither greatly nourish nor produce fruit, but if either one is combined with others of its kind, the aggregate of them can be transformed into food and drink that will sustain us and make our hearts glad.  And if either one is planted as a seed, it will be fruitful and produce more of its kind.

           Jesus spoke explicitly about the spiritual implications of a grain of wheat being planted: in order to bear fruit, it must die to what it is and be transformed into something else—must die in order to achieve its full potential of life.  Even if it is joined with others and made into bread, it must endure the transmutation into flour.  The grape also finds its larger purpose in being crushed into juice to make a drink or to flavor some food.  Either the grain of wheat or the grape loses some of its potential if it is consumed by itself.

           As we partake of these products of wheat and grapes which have been changed in a natural way, we do well to remember that we as individual “grains and grapes” must be ready to be transformed spiritually into what God can make of us together, as well as being acutely aware of what that requires of us as individuals.  Jesus Himself did not pull back from going through death in order to become our Redeemer, knowing that there was no way to be what God needed Him to be except to lose all that He was.  When we share these symbols of His body and blood, we are renewing our consent to be continually transformed from puny “grains and grapes” into the Body of Christ, not as that body walked the earth, nor even as it hung on the cross and was buried, but as it was raised to perfect and nourishing Life, filling all of us with that divine power which brings us together in Him.

Dr. Elton Higgs was a faculty member in the English department of the University of Michigan-Dearborn from 1965-2001. Having retired from UM-D as Prof. of English in 2001, he now lives with his wife in Jackson, MI. He has published scholarly articles on Chaucer, Langland, the Pearl Poet, Shakespeare, and Milton. Recently, Dr. Higgs has self-published a collection of his poetry called Probing Eyes: Poems of a Lifetime, 1959-2019, as well as a book inspired by The Screwtape Letters, called The Ichabod Letters, available as an e-book from Moral Apologetics. (Ed.: Dr. Higgs was the most important mentor during undergrad for the creator of this website, and his influence was inestimable.