Saturday, August 30, 2008

Into The Wind

"Now the people were filled with expectation, and all were asking in their hearts whether John might be the Messiah. John answered them all, saying, 'I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming...He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.' Exhorting them in many other ways, he preached good news to the people" (Luke 3:15-18, NAB).

Threshing and winnowing are two different things. In threshing, the grain is beaten with sticks. This process loosens the chaff (the useless husk) from the grain. In winnowing, the grain is thrown into the wind. The chaff is blown off and away by the wind, but the grain (the useful seed) falls back to the ground, where it is gathered and stored.

Jesus arrived with his winnowing fan in his hand, and he's committed to winnowing us, removing the chaff from the grain, the useless from the useful, the precious from the worthless (Jer. 15:19). The process is for our good, that we might share his holiness and bear much fruit (Heb. 12:10, John 15:2). He is faithful to throw us into the wind, the Holy Spirit; and once the chaff is blown away, we fall back to the earth useful. "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit" (John 12:24).