Chaff

I learned a bit about winnowing today. After grain has been threshed, with the husks (or chaff) loosened from the kernels, it’s necessary to separate them. Farmers did this anciently by throwing piles of the mixture into the air. Wind would blow away the lighter-weight chaff, while the heavier kernels of grain would fall to the earth. This was done using a winnowing fan or fork.

The Greek word ptuon (πτύον) refers to the tool used for winnowing. It can be translated “fork” (as in pitchfork), “fan,” or “shovel.” The fan doesn’t look anything like the fans I’m used to. It’s more like a basket. Here’s a 19th century depiction of a farmer using a winnowing fan:

John the Baptist warned his listeners to repent, telling them that someone powerful would soon come:

Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

Matthew 3:12, Luke 3:17

An ominous way to interpret that metaphor is to think of each grain of wheat or chaff as representing a person. Will we be grounded enough to remain in place, or will we be blown away in the wind? Alma follows this line of reasoning as he warns his son Helaman, “if ye transgress the commandments of God…ye shall be delivered up unto Satan, that he may sift you as chaff before the wind” (Alma 37:15). And Mormon later laments that his people are:

…led about by Satan, even as chaff is driven before the wind, or as a vessel is tossed about upon the waves, without sail or anchor, or without anything wherewith to steer her; and even as she is, so are they.

Mormon 5:16, 18

So one way to interpret John’s warning is: Don’t be chaff. Repent, ground yourself by becoming aligned with God, and you won’t be blown away when the winnowing happens.

But as I thought about John’s admonition to repent today, I thought of the metaphor in a different way. There’s a lot of chaff in my life, lots of things that are kind of worthless but which somehow manage to persist and cling to me. I thought, if I can somehow loosen those habits and desires and lessen their grip on me, then maybe they will fly away when the Savior brings His fan. Maybe instead of the chaff representing me, it can represent my sins, and when I’m tossed in the fan, only the real me will remain; the superfluous bits will simply vanish in the wind, if I’m willing to let them go.

Today, I will let go. I will allow the chaff in my life to blow away as I am winnowed and refined in the capable hands of my Savior.