Since the Lord, Israel’s God has given his people peace, the Levites, “were responsible for the stacks of bread, the fine flour for grain offerings, the wafers of unleavened bread, the cakes made on the griddle, the offering mixed with oil, as well as all the measuring.”
1 Chronicles 25:25, 29 (CEB, adapted)
One of the adventures with our grandson Ross (13) was picking peaches at a local orchard to make pies. You need to know up front that I like to bake, but pies are not my thing. Homemade pie crusts are challenging, but I wanted this to be a from-scratch experience, so we made crusts, and a mess.
I decided to try my food processor to blend the crust ingredients. Ross volunteered to make the first batch of crust, and he was an enthusiastic power tool operator. I suggested that he try the “pulse” setting, but that didn’t seem to work fast enough so high speed it was, for three minutes. The resulting dough was sticky, so we added a little more flour. And then a little more flour, and then lots of flour. The dough was no longer sticky but almost impossible to roll. Did I mention that flour was all over both of us, the counter, the floor, and Kiko the border collie?
Two hours later, two pies in the oven, and a bit of cleaning, we were tired and pleased as pie with our handiwork. The time together was messy as well as memorable, a sacred time well-spent.
Baking is messy, like life, like church. But I imagine those Levites, who were the bakers of bread and cakes good enough for sacred offerings also made some messes. And maybe that’s part of the sacredness of any offering, messes, and all.
Help us to find the sacredness in the messes ~ Anne
Wayfinding 