To Be or Not To Be....?

An olive or a grape? That is the true question.

I have been pondering and thinking about some of those topics discussed on our historic trip to the Holy Land. While looking through the many pictures of olive presses and the subsequent wine press, I have reflected back and made the decision it would have to be an olive. Here are my thoughts supporting my decision. (my family has already heard a rambling of this already, so they must please forgive another one) While visiting the village where a wine-vat was located, the guide was explaining to us the differences of how the grape would be pressed as opposed to the olive. How they used the human foot to do the pressing instead of another method like the olive. He explained that the grapes that they would press would have seeds in them and if they were to crush the seeds it would make the juice, or wine, bitter and unusable. The human method of tampling the grapes allows the flesh of the grape to be pressed more gently with enough pressure to obtain the juice without crushing the seeds.

But unlike the grapes, the olive is able to be pressed and crushed with the pressure of the press, which with more pressing, the oil becomes even sweeter. I thought of the many things we were taught about the olives, the olive trees and the uses that were derived from them. The by products are used in cooking, as a fuel source and for medicinal purposes. Then there is also the many references in the scriptures regarding the olive tree, the vineyard (which would be talking about olive trees).



When I see the press, it brings such symbolism to me of being in one. The trials of our lives and the pressing feelings of stress that accompanies them. The symbolism that I feel I am being pressed for my oil, or a liquid by product of the pressure....tears. But there are deeper symbolisms that have been coming to my mind, usually at early morning hours when my brain is available and has an absence of distraction.

One of the symbolic thoughts that has crossed my mind was the story of the ten virgins. We most generally tell or read the story in the light of it being about preparedness, which it is, but I have always pictured the lamps and didn't read more deeply. After being in the holy land and learning of the importance of the oil, and reading the story more closely, it is more vital to the story to emphasize the "vessels".

That is where the bold print needs to be. In Matthew 25:4 it says "but the wise took oil "in their vessels" with their lamps." While we always have known that the story of the ten virgins was about personal, spiritual preparedness, it just has connected for me that the press is where we get our oil for our vessels. The oil that burns the light in our lives. That light being the Savior in our lives. The light of our testimonies and the gospel. While being pressed and feeling the pressure of life is not the most pleasant sometimes, the trials are necessary. Lest I be one of the foolish, I must be tried and pressed. And while I am feeling squeezed with the pressure, it is mine and mine alone to have. Thus, it cannot be shared or given to others for their benefit. They must produce their own oil and fill their own vessels. I just don't want to be like a grape and become bitter. More fit for the kingdom, more used (useful like an olive) would I be.

But while I have been thinking how crazy and "pressing" life has been, there has been scripture shown to me (thanks John) that tells me my pressing is the easy one, the wine pressing one, and not the olive press. In Doctrine and Covenants 133:48-52 it tells us that the Savior has trodden the wine press alone. Through the atonement, he has given us the more gentle pressing and he has taken the greater pressing in Gethsemanie, where in Luke 22 it says his sweat was as it were great drops of blood.

While these ramblings may not have produced any great doctrinal insights for someone else, and someone else may have already "gotten it", they fill my vessel with a deeper love and understanding of the gospel. A desire to keep my vessel filled, that I might have sufficient for my lamp and a burning desire that my family may have their vessels filled. That they may withstand the pressings they each must go through to have enough oil for their lamps and but most importantly for their vessels too.