Making Bread

Last summer we took the leap and bought a new machine for our family. I guess for most people that would be referring to a new car or something. For us, it was the faith walk into the purchase of a bread machine. It was almost $4 for this thing! We aren't really the 'fancy machine' kinda people, but I have to admit I bought a $3 juicer as well last summer. Whoever invented garage sales will always be my hero.

I have never seen making bread as a manly job. Sorry to genderize it. When I think about making bread, images of a fat gramma lady working the dough come up. I see her with a bandanna around her head holder her hair back and her wearing an apron, with flour dust all over her. She looks like aunt Jemima from the syrup bottle. Okay, okay, so I admit I am little weird. My point is that when I think of making bread, I usually don't think of a middle aged, balding man in the mountains of Colorado doing it.

But the last few days I've been trying to make a loaf or two every day - we eat a lot of bread. Sometimes they turn out really good. Other times the cat runs out of the kitchen really fast and hides under the bed. He's a weird cat. More often than not, the family appreciates what I make, and even when it is a little sub-par, they eat it happily. It's a weird family.

It's funny that the term 'making bread' is also used to describe the process of going to work and bringing home a pay check. That kind of making bread is easier for me to see a man doing. Sorry to genderize the situation again. That's my intention or my point. My point is this; making bread in either fashion, is a part of necessity on earth. Part of our purpose during this life is to provide for ourselves by making bread or making bread. Some think that if they go make bread, they are thwarting God's plans for their lives. Some think that if they make bread, they are doing all that God created them to do. Others launch out into the world and never think about what God might want, and wonder why their making bread isn't cutting it. It is also funny that Jesus quoted the verse to Satan that man cannot live by bread alone. I wonder what He meant.

Here's the 'Mike' version. If all our lives are about what we do and what we accomplish and about how much we get - the amount of bread we make- we are really missing the point of life. If bread is all we have, we can't live. That means my work, my possessions, my amassed wealth will never provide life for me. I guess that means the new bread machine isn't going to ultimately make much truly satisfying bread. Bummer - $4 wasted!

The other thing that the Mike version thinks is that bread ain't gonna cut it because we were made for more than bread. What I mean is that we will never be truly satisfied with the things that are here, that are now. The ache inside is for Someone far more important - namely, the Bread of Life. It is the Divine plan that we hunger for bread. But the hunger is designed to lead us to Him, not to a collection of 'things'. Its a dichotomy (I know, its a fancy word that I don't understand either). I think that means that it is both (and completely neither) at the same time.
The dichotomy is that we must make bread to live, AND that bread will never satisfy because we were made for more than bread.

All I know is that today there is the smell of baking delight wafting from the kitchen, and the cat isn't running away, so there is a good chance we might have a good batch. And I guess I also know that the Bread of Life is also wafting all around me. I know that if I miss The Bread because of the bread, I will also miss the very reason I was created. After all, doesn't it say that as often as I eat of The Bread, I eat of Life?

So today, and tomorrow, and the next day I pray that I be given my daily bread in extra slices.