Be the Bread
I was baking bread earlier because bread has been hard to find (during this Covid-19 pandemic); because we enjoy making and eating bread; and because we were low. So, here I am making whole wheat bread with my two year old. She is playing in the flour, while I mix the dough. And every time I make bread I find it to be messy, gritty, and grainy at first. I wonder if the bread is going to turn out, and if it will be the right consistency. Every time. So, I mix the dough and it is gritty and grainy. And then I let it rest, for just a few minutes before kneading the dough. While it rests, it gets a little bit softer, and a little bit less grainy. Then the fun begins, I get to knead the dough. And this is when it is really transformed from being this grainy, unusable mess, to this soft, smooth, pliable, beauty that will go into the oven, where it will continue to rise and stretch, and bake in the warmth of the oven. When it comes out, instead of being useless flour (that can’t be eaten on its own), or fungus, or a grainy mess, it is soft, fragrant, deliciousness.
You see, the Lord showed me that he is doing this with his people (and has in the past, and will continue to do so). The Lord takes us as we are, and we have potential. We can become something good and useful. And yet, on our own, we are just gritty and grainy. We really are useless apart from God. But still, He will mix us. He will allow us to rest in Him. He kneads us, smoothing out the rough parts, working out the tough spots, poking at those things we don’t want others to know about. And He makes us smooth and lovely. Ready to be used. He grows us in His presence. He bakes us in His warmth. And then when we are done, we are fragrant: A fragrant offering to the Lord. Ready to do His good, pleasing, and perfect will (Romans 12).
And isn’t it interesting that God would show me this through bread making. You see, bread is used in communion as a representation of Christ’s body. And yet, the Church is also called the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12). I am not suggesting that we are Christ. But we do represent Christ to the world. We are the ones that are here to feed the world. Because God wills that all people would be saved (1 Tim. 2:4). And how can they be saved if we do not feed them by sharing Christ with them?
So take this moment, knowing what you are going through right now, is God’s way of refining you into something useful, for his good work, so that you can be something nutritious and beneficial to the world around you. We are on earth to share the love of God with those around us. We are to feed them spiritual food. We are meant to nourish. We are the body of Christ! Be the bread that people so desperately need right now!
