If you haven't heard about Diana Duyser and her miraculous 10-year-old lunch, then you are missing out. This story of belief, God, and sustenance began with Ms. Duyser making herself a grilled cheese sandwich. Upon taking the first bite out of the slightly burnt toast, she looked down to find a face staring back at her. That face was none other than that of the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus. Presented with this godly visage, Duyser did what any self-respecting person would do-she invested. She placed the sandwich in a regular plastic container, which though not airtight or anti-microbial, has miraculously prevented the sandwich from molding or going rotten. Armed with her relic, Duyser hit up the nearby Indian casinos, pulling in over $70,000. And ten years later, with the market ripe, she has placed this " Holy Grill" on the eBay auctioning floor.

The sandwich is already at the $7,600 mark, and as of this article, there are still 3 days left of bidding.

What puzzles me is not that people would buy the sandwich-eBay was created to turn one man's trash into another man's treasure. I'm not shocked that there are already fan sites and Mary Grilled Cheese merchandise to purchase-that's a function of capitalist America (plus, who doesn't want an " If you grill it, she will come" t-shirt?). What surprises me most is that Ms. Duyser would sell this wholesome, nutritious, blessed sandwich.

Perhaps this is just my cynical nature, but if I had received a message from God on my lunch, I think I'd hold on to it. It's not every day an omnipotent being reaches out to communicate directly with humanity-it's even less often that such a being uses charred bread as the medium.

Ms. Duyser swears to the legitimacy of the relic. Those who doubt the power of the grilled cheese can reflect on the fame and fortune that have fallen upon Ms. Duyser. The sandwich seems like the real deal. So why is she now willing to part with her God-sent meal? Thought I'm not sure how I'd act if I had the honor of being tapped as a prophet, I'm nearly positive I would not pawn off the message to the highest bidder.

Having never met Ms. Duyser, it's difficult for me to understand her motivations. Perhaps she is simply a Good Samaritan yearning to share the divine wealth. Perhaps she has grown weary of the burden that is attached to such a powerful piece of the divine. But the agnostics among us might press for another reason: in truth, Ms. Duyser only has a burnt piece of toast with an image that reasonably looks like a face.

I'm no expert on iconography, but nothing in the image stands out as depicting Mary. Rather, I'm guessing that Ms. Duyser saw the face and her synapses sparked to the conclusion that she had nearly eaten the Christian matriarch. Had I been eating it, I would have seen Elvis. But to Ms. Duyser, there was something about the face that made her think "Mary."

The amusing part is that it's all quite backwards. There would be more " proof" of the sandwich's holiness if it had come up with the words, " Mary, mother of Jesus, has blessed this tasty combination of melted cheese and bread, and the owner thereof." Yet if that were to appear on a grilled cheese sandwich, no one would think it was sent from above. People see what they want to see. Humanity is more willing to believe a face on a sandwich as a miraculous event than writing on the wall. We like not being trapped by our beliefs or being proven wrong. We cleave to those axioms that are infallible. Consequently, it is that which presents the most wiggle room for error that we are most willing to accept as truth.

So why would Ms. Duyser, a woman of faith, sell off the meal that was touched by God? One could make the case that she didn't actually believe in the sandwich. One could argue she enjoyed the publicity but felt it was time to unload the dough. One could say she saw the opportunity for a great scam. One could say these things, but I won't.

In a world of split particles and cellular reconstruction, relics are in short demand. It's become a lot easier to believe in Science Magazine than the Bible, even though we all want to trust in something beyond pure physics and chemistry. We are attracted to the unknown, to the concept that there is something else out there, even though we feel foolish possessing such beliefs. We yearn to place our faith in something that science cannot touch.

Ms. Duyser realized that her blessed grill cheese sandwich, as bizarre as it is, is the kind of outlandish token into which the masses and their media can sink their teeth. Just as Tinkerbell is dead until we clap our hands, the sandwich has no significance unless people acknowledge it. Ms. Duyser sold her sandwich to save the souls of America.

That sandwich is a celebrity. Now that it is shared with the world, now that hundreds acknowledge its worth and celebrate its abilities, it's truly valuable. Before, the sandwich was just a bizarrely burnt piece of toast. Now, it's better than a piece of the cross. The story of the sandwich is on everybody's lips, the media has eaten it up, and people are starting to wonder to themselves: " maybe today I'll find God in my baked potato." Maybe they will. And wouldn't that be a delicious turn of events?