The first part of the month I encouraged you to look for little gifts that God gives us each day. Yesterday one of my gifts came from a bowl of bread dough.
I was making my first batches of cinnamon rolls for the Christmas season. It’s a tradition. I had just gotten the dough mixed when Dave asked me to go with him to get propane. It was a short trip to town. Sure.
Off we went. I knew the dough would rise and be at the perfect height to punch down when I returned. We got delayed by a few minutes and when we got back one batch of dough was running over the edge of the bowl. A real “dough-saster”. I quickly scooped it up, punched it down and let it rise again. Disaster averted. Soon the house smelled of delicious cinnamon rolls baking in the oven.
Now let me show you what I learned. Yeast causes the bread to rise. It is a chemical reaction. It gets big and fluffy and can even run over. Our lives are like that too. We can get all puffed up and get a big head when we allow pride to control us and we can spill over when we don’t keep our tempers in control.
Leaven or yeast was symbolic of something the Jewish people considered unclean. The night of the first Passover they were told to bake their bread without leaven. It was a sign that they could go on a moment’s notice to do what God directed. Their bread didn’t need time to rise, they could go now. Jesus warned the disciples that the teachings of the religious elite would pollute their purpose.
“Why can’t you understand that I’m not talking about bread? So again I say, ‘Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.’” 12 Then at last they understood that he wasn’t speaking about the yeast in bread, but about the deceptive teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Matthew 16:11-12 NLT
I was reminded to keep a sense of humility. What a wonderful gift! A sense or awareness that God wanted me to be ready, on a moments notice, to do for others. He wants me to help them as I can.
“God has given me His loving-favor. This helps me write these things to you. I ask each one of you not to think more of himself than he should think. Instead, think in the right way toward yourself by the faith God has given you. 4 Our bodies are made up of many parts. None of these parts have the same use. 5 There are many people who belong to Christ. And yet, we are one body which is Christ’s. We are all different but we depend on each other. ” Romans 12:3-5 NLV
As we help others we season their lives with the wonderful gift of God’s love.