Matt hefted the paper grocery bag as his dad walked deeper into their garden. The tasseled ends of the cornstalks waved way above Matt’s head while the broad, green leaves scraped against his arms and legs. His sister Abby trailed behind him, lugging her own bag of corn.
Their dad paused and peeled back the top of one of the ears of corn jutting from the stalk. The green leaves that clothed the ear of corn squeaked. He nodded in satisfaction at the pale yellow color of the corn inside. “This one’s ripe.” He twisted the ear from the cornstalk and placed it in Matt’s bag.
Matt wrapped his arms around the bottom of the bag. He didn’t want the bag to rip and spill their corn all over the garden.
His dad paused by another cornstalk and frowned. Matt could see that something was wrong with this ear of corn. Instead of bright yellow silk sprouting from the top of a beautiful green ear, grey lumps burst from the top of the ear of corn. They bulged and looked slimy. Matt set down the bag of corn and stepped closer. “What is it?”
“It’s a type of fungus that infects the corn.” Their dad grimaced at the corn.
“It’s called corn smut,” Abby informed both of them. Matt rolled his eyes. His sister was such a know-it-all.
“Yes, though we always called it the grey stuff when I was growing up.” Their dad bent and tugged on the cornstalk until it uprooted. “You can’t tell a cornstalk has been infected until it shows up in the ear of corn.”
He began to walk out of the garden with Abby following closely behind him. Matt ran to catch up. “What are you going to do with it?”
“The best way to get rid of the fungus is to get the infected stalks out of the garden.” Their dad tossed the cornstalk into their fire pit. “We’ll burn it later tonight with any other infected plants we find.”
After they had filled both of their bags, Matt, Abby, and their dad shucked the green husks from the corncobs. As Matt peeled the green leaves away from one corncob, he frowned. Instead of neat rows of yellow kernels, this ear of corn was speckled with a few kernels while the rest of the ear remained empty. He held it out to his dad. “Is this a good ear of corn?” It didn’t look like a good corn to him.
Their dad glanced at the corncob and nodded, “It still has good kernels on it. Keep it.”
Matt placed it in his bag with the rest of the shucked corncobs that he’d give to his mom to cook. His dad had a point. A good corncob had good kernels on it. His mouth watered just thinking about it.
Questions to think about:
- Read Luke 6:43–45 and Lord’s Day 32 and 33 in the Heidelberg Catechism by yourself or with your parents. What are good works?
- How are you like the imperfect ear of corn?