Drops

We attend an Anglican Church where every Sunday part of the liturgy includes communion, observing and remembering the Lord’s Supper. When we first started attending – pre-Covid because isn’t that how we reckon time now? – communion was celebrated by taking a wafer and dipping it in a chalice of wine, or some actually drank from the chalice.

Then…Covid. Sharing cups of wine was no longer ok. Even if everybody refrained from taking a sip. So how we celebrated communion changed. Now the wafers are pre-prepared with a drop of wine on them already. Those who serve communion do so by handing each participant a wafer with a drop of wine on it.

Around the same time, I was asked to become part of the communion preparation team. So periodically I count out a certain number of wafers and then, with an eye dropper, place a drop of wine on each wafer. The drops are never equal or the same. Sometimes it’s a rather small drip and sometimes it’s a blob.

As I was “wining” the communion wafers this last week, I was struck by how much the wine drops resembled drops of blood. Our Lord’s blood. Shed for me and for each person who would participate and receive communion. And even for those who choose not to observe communion.

The inadvertent symbolism was so striking. Right there on the wafer. A picture of what my eternal life cost Jesus. What He willingly gave.

Sometimes I need a strong, striking visual reminder of what I have received and from Whom.