Baking Bread
by Robert Rawls
“And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And all ate and were filled. What was left over was gathered up, twelve baskets of broken pieces.” – Luke 9: 16-17
As I write this morning, I am in the process of baking bread to take with me to tonight’s Small Group meeting. (I would like to tell you that I’m kneading the dough by hand and baking it in my oven…but I’m not. I’m relying on the old bread machine that’s been tucked away in the cabinet for years.) This is the fourth loaf of bread that I’ve made since my Lenten practice of intentional eating began a week and a half ago. Two have turned out pretty good. One was a disaster. We’ll see how today’s loaf turns out.
When I went grocery shopping last week, deciding which bread to buy was one of the hardest decisions for me to make. Something so simple had become really complex. There were ingredients that I didn’t recognize as I looked at the packaging. Some were organic, but most weren’t. Mass produced and vitamin enhanced and always perfectly shaped…the bread at the store seemed so disconnected from process of making food. It was all end result.
That night, I pulled out the bread machine and baked a loaf of whole wheat bread. It was the one that I said was a disaster, but we ate it anyway.
For me, at least during this time of Lent, there is something spiritual about making my own bread. While I haven’t lived up to all of my Lenten challenges so far, taking the time to make bread gives me a few moments to live out my understanding of God’s gift of nourishment. It’s not always quick and it’s definitely not always store bought. I have to slow down and pull out all of the different ingredients: flour, water, salt, honey, yeast…
I get the chance to remember God’s presence in the process.
“Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.” – traditional Jewish blessing
Tags: Rob
