Nougat 7

Wanna hear something profound? Here’s today’s Holy Nougat

“Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” ‭‭John‬ ‭12:24‬ ‭NIV‬‬

We have heard this before, and while not all wheat farmers, we understand the principle. We even get the other level of what Jesus meant, as He spoke about His own life and its impact on the world; especially the non-Jews ie Gentiles. But have we stopped for consider ourselves as the grain of wheat? That it’s our lives that will be lost for the sake of the Cross? As we reflect, we are perhaps mindful of the parable of the seeds in Matthew 13. We may realize that seeds need fertile soil for growth or they will remain dead and are either discarded or at best become bird-food.

As we reflect; do we know where our seed is planted? How deep are our roots? And how often are we watered?

Different seeds need different conditions to flourish. Whereas the example Jesus used was simply wheat; there are over 70 different varieties today, and different varieties perhaps flourish in certain places. We also recognize that though much of the wheat is harvested; some seeds are blown by the wind. If the wind were to be our metaphor for God’s Spirit, our question is – are we yielding to the wind of God’s Spirit over our lives?

In applying the nougat to our lives, we hear Jesus saying ’Except we die, we will not live’. Now them’s hard words to hear – Hard, HARD words! This isn’t even about being gently blown by or even being bodily moved by the gust of God’s Spirit. This is Death. Final and Finite. Are we open to death? Just as critically, in our places of worship; that place we’ve been planted – Are we encouraged to die in order that we might Live?

In the ensuing verse, Jesus declared that the person who is fixated on (all about) self-preservation will die; and it’s the one who willingly surrenders who lives. If we’re not being encouraged to die; we become bird-food and nothing is likely to be reborn in or from us.

Now let’s go one further – Paul, in Romans

12:1-2, begs us to each offer ourselves as a Living Sacrifice to God. Beyond the shadow of a doubt, that’s about dying while alive; hence we become The Seed (grain of wheat). It is necessary that our old nature dies, so that Christ’s Nature will live and thrive within. To live again, the seed splits, bursts forth root(s) (which anchor it in the soil), and also a stem/-stalk (that moves consistently upward towards the sunlight). Soon it looks so different from its former self. In time, it’s no longer its former self as even the seed disappears. Have we been holding on to our former selves in vain? Where are we anchoring our roots? And, as we seek to maximize our ’dead potential,’ Are we reaching daily Sonward?

Lots to chew … lots to ponder

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May all we seek be found in Christ