Ever since I was a young girl I remember sitting in church with my feet dangling from the chair anxious to get home and take off the itchy tights. As the service came to an end there would be days where men would come out and pass around trays from row to row. One tray contained a small cracker, which I took into my hand without a second thought. In the other tray was a particularly small cup of juice, which I handled ever so carefully as to not spill any. The man up front sure seemed to make a fuss over this cracker and juice and I just sat wondering why? Maybe its because they forgot to salt the cracker? Maybe they accidentally bought juice cups for fairies? After, to a little girl, what seemed like hours of talking he lifted the cracker telling us to eat, and I did just that crunching the tiny cracker in my mouth causing it to be particularly dry. Then he lifted the cup and told us to drink, which I gladly did due to my dry mouth.

For years communion stayed in as simple a form as bread and a cracker never to be understood by myself. Now my mother had told me of this so called communion, I heard the words coming from her mouth but failed to let such things as eating flesh and drinking blood set into my mind… WAIT, WHAT? I have to drink blood to be a Christian? This must be a cult! So as you can see the understanding did not sink in for many years. Once I was a teenager I gained a simplified understanding of communion but never did I fully understand nor appreciate the true meaning. So I would go to church and join in with communion but understanding it was another story.

Two years ago I became a Christian after being lost for many years and this is when my true understanding of communion was set in motion. Just yesterday I sat in my dimly lit church after a service filled with prayer, looking down at the cracker in my left hand and the juice in my right. I lifted the cracker, examining it in my hand, letting my fingers lightly run across each ridge in the small cracker. Then I looked to my right hand, deep into the little red glass of juice smelling the strong fruit scent. I sat there thinking how amazing this was to be able to know the meaning of communion as the man up front presented his message over the event then he lifted the cracker representing the body and I ate and then lifted the small cup representing the blood and I drank.

So what is communion? Well let’s go back to the source and ask Jesus. John 6:53-58 “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.”

The cracker or the bread, which is leavened, is meant to set the believer free from sin. Since Jesus died for our sins on the cross we have been set free. The bread is to represent the body of Christ as said in Mark 14:22 “As they were eating, Jesus took some bread and blessed it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, ‘take it, for this is my body’.”

The wine or grape juice is to represent the blood Jesus shed on the cross as said in Mark 14:23-24 “And he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. He gave it to them, and they all drank from it. And he said to them, ‘this is my blood which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice for many’.” This cup stands for forgiveness and redemption we have now been forgiven of our sins since Jesus died for our sins.

Really think about these verses, receive what it says, and truly understand what it says. Anyone can read a verse from the Bible but not everyone will give time for the verse to process and understand the meaning. If as a young teen given myself a chance to really think about the many verses the pastors would say I may have gained a better understanding of communion early on.