Crumbs!

Smell, they say, is the most powerful of the senses.  Take the smell of newly-baked bread, for example; one whiff and I can be transported to childhood, recalling with fondness my cycle ride to school, a route that passed the baker’s shop.  Alternatively, I recall holidays in France, where it seems every tiny village awakes to the aroma coming from the boulangerie.

At harvest time (if we’re quick enough before the fields are ploughed for a new season’s crop), the rough spiky landscape of the stubble provides a stark reminder of the valuable corn that has been carefully gathered for processing into flour.  Harvest is thus a good time to meditate on bread, so let’s look a little closer at this simple blend of flour, water and yeast.  Its great variety comes from the type of flour, the proportions and mixture of the ingredients, and the addition of salt and other minor items according to taste.  Therein lies the skill of the master baker – though let’s not forget the importance of taking it out of the oven at the right time!

Bread is a reflection of our very selves.  The flour, the basic ingredient, can be compared to our bodies, which come in a wide range of sizes, shapes and colours.  To the flour is added some liquid: again, quite a variety is available just as people in different cultures enjoy many different foods.  Without yeast, however, such a mixture would be little better than a stodgy paste, and we might compare the working of the yeast to the vibrant entry of God’s Holy Spirit into our lives.

Finally comes the kneading and baking.  Both are critical, for the loaves may finish up crusty or only lightly browned, heavy and barely digestible or light and fluffy, according to the time, skill and effort of the baker.  And isn’t this just the effect our passage through this world can have on us?  Too much care and protection as we grow up might make us unable to cope with life later on; too little and we may perish in our ignorance of any number of life’s perils.

From the blessing of Abram by Melchizedek (Gen. 14:18) to Paul’s instruction to the idle busybodies of Thessalonika to settle down and earn the bread they eat (2Thess. 3:8-12), bread is a constant point of reference in the Bible.  Whether in terms of loaves or as a metaphor for the stuff of life itself, we simply can’t get away from it.  So, next time you tuck into a roll or a sandwich – and I’m sure it won’t be long – remember that Jesus told the crowds, ‘I am the bread of life’ (John 6:35) ... and enjoy it all the more for that!