(submitted by Kerry
Patton)
Then
Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go
hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36But as I
told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37All those
the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive
away. 38For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do
the will of him who sent me. 39And this is the will of him who sent
me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at
the last day. 40For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to
the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up
at the last day.” John 6:35-40
Growing up in small
West Texas towns, I came quickly to understand where bread came from: the grocery store. On many occasions, my mother would hand me a
little money and tell me to hop on my bicycle and run to the store for milk, or
meat…or on occasion, bread.
No one I knew…(or at least no one I was aware of) BAKED bread…everyone BOUGHT bread. That’s where bread came from: grocery stores.
…Well, actually, I knew that it came from the bread factory. As I have recounted before to you, early in
my school years I went on a class field trip to the Mrs. Baird’s bread factory
in Abilene, Texas and got to watch bread go from bags of flour to hot steaming
slices of buttered bread. So, I knew
where bread came from.
But that isn’t the
whole truth is it? Bread didn’t always
come in colorful plastic bags on brightly painted trucks to the waiting shelves
of the local grocer. In simpler times,
bread dough was painstakingly prepared by mothers and grandmothers (and no
doubt by not a few fathers and grandfathers as well), allowed to rise, and
baked in the ovens of local homes. THAT’S where bread came from…you made
it at home! And if you were out of
bread, it was because YOU hadn’t baked any.
There was no running to the store, you ran into the kitchen and got
busy!
Well, somewhere in the
early 1900’s large factories began cranking out loaves of bread by the
thousands. And while home baked bread
wasn’t eradicated by any means, it was certainly becoming less and less an
American way of life. So, there I was, a
child of the 1970’s riding my bicycle to the store again to fetch another bag
of bread.
Recall with me, if you
will, the advent of the automatic bread machine of the mid 1980’s… Do you
remember these? What amazing wonders
were they? Many of us still have
them. As I remember the process, it was
possible to put the dry ingredients and the water in the machine (keeping the
yeast away from the water), set the timer, and go to bed. At some point during the night, the machine
would wake up and while you slumbered, IT made the bread. You could awaken to the smell of freshly
baked bread…and you had done relatively nothing in order to have it! Pour in the dry ingredients, add water, mash
the buttons, go to bed…BOOM bread in the morning. What a life!
BIG TRANSITION…Don’t let me lose you here…
Of himself, Jesus
said: “I am the bread of life...” As followers of Jesus, it occurs to me that
much of what we are to be doing in life is emulating the life, love, and
compassion of our Lord Jesus. For the
sake of this devotion and the point I wish to communicate, I would like you to
consider our daily lives…our individual pursuit of Jesus, and our personal
growth in the Christian faith as “baking bread.” It occurs to me that the ingredients of this
fresh bread we are to be baking would include our personal prayer time, our
reading and contemplating of the Holy Bible, as well as our corporate worship
and study at Church.
In living and
practicing our faith actively, we are reproducing the life and example of Him
who is “the bread of life” in what we do and say, how we love, act, and
react. We are, if you will…baking
bread! Think about that for a moment…
So, if we aren’t…well,
baking fresh bread…the bread of life…living actively as Jesus daily. If we are leaving the business of baking
bread up to those large factories and spiritual grocery stores that we call
churches…then the art and ministry of “baking bread” while not eradicated by
any means, is certainly becoming less and less an American way of life. Did you follow that? We are to be baking bread…AT HOME, in the
kitchens of our own heart, and personal life.
Our family is to feed on that bread! We are to take the extra bread of
life that we produce and feed the spiritually starving of our neighborhood…of
our work place… of our circle of friends!
They NEED the bread of life too!
Granted anyone may at
any given time pick up a Bible and read for him or herself about our Lord
Jesus. But most of us don’t stumble into
the kingdom of God accidently. We are LED
there intentionally by God fearing men and women who are baking bread daily in
their living and pursuit of Jesus. They
helped us catch a smell of the bread baking in our kitchens and we were drawn
in for a sample! Right? Listen, this is not the will of God for our
lives…that we should leave the baking of bread up to professionals in big
buildings…Oh, there is good bread to be found there to be sure. But we are to return to our own kitchen and
stir up the aroma of fresh bread baking there…again! And let us not allow easy patterns of speech
and trite spiritual truths to become a spiritual bread machine in our
lives. Others might be impressed that we
can produce bread quickly and easily with our little machine, but we would know
the truth…that we have not taken the time to measure out the scratch
ingredients…work the dough with our own hands, and watch it carefully as it
bakes. Let our faith baking be that of
sincere preparation and attentive execution as the need is great…and many are
so very hungry!
Prayer
Almighty God, awaken
the bakery of my heart! Stir into fire
the oven of my faith where I have allowed it to grow cold and unused. Help
me…inspire me, fill me this day what you would have me exhibit, live, say to,
and share with others as I go about. Let my life be the aroma of fresh baked
bread again! In Jesus’ name I pray,
Amen.
