2024.11.15
“I’m telling you the most solemn and sober truth now: Whoever believes in me has real life, eternal life. I am the Bread of Life. Your ancestors ate the manna bread in the desert and died. But now here is Bread that truly comes down out of heaven. Anyone eating this Bread will not die, ever. I am the Bread—living Bread!—who came down out of heaven. Anyone who eats this Bread will live—and forever! The Bread that I present to the world so that it can eat and live is myself, this flesh-and-blood self.” John 6:50-51 The Message
Challah loaves cooling on racks.
Baking bread is satisfying for me. It is rewarding to mix some simple ingredients like flour, yeast, water, and salt together, let the yeast do its work, then shape the dough into a loaf, put it into the oven, and voila – fresh bread. The scent of the rising dough, the feeling of working dough into a loaf, and the finished product – can all be accomplished within a few hours. Like cleaning out drawers and closets when life seems out of control, I can turn a few ingredients into something delicious in a relatively brief time. Last week I tried a new recipe for challah bread and anticipated sharing a loaf with friends. I wrapped a cooled loaf in a bag and put it on the breakfast nook table .
The next morning, Rod and I were eating breakfast. Suddenly Rod jumped up and yelled, “Jackson. No! Stop!” I turned around to see the loaf of bread on the floor, with a big bite taken out of the middle. Jackson, the thief was on the move. Two weeks earlier he nabbed a chocolate chip cookie I’d put on an end table for Rod. One minute it was there, the next it was gone. That resulted in a text for a friend who is also a veterinarian to see if the chocolate in the cookie was fatal. Thankfully, it wasn’t.
Dogs are good at sniffing out treats, whether it is a lone chocolate chip cookie, a hunk of bread, or meat cooking on the grill. The interesting thing is that they are also interested in things that aren’t good for them. On our walks, I will frequently need to intervene when they want to roll in questionable items along the road, including poop and roadkill.
Jesus’ invitation to partake of the living bread is a reminder that we become what we take in. When we take in Jesus – his words, his attitudes, his actions, we are alive in ways that a pint of Cherries Garcia ice cream, or a bag of chips, will never match. Peter, the impulsive follower of Jesus, said this when many other followers were deserting Jesus, “Master, to whom would we go? You have the words of real life, eternal life. We’ve already committed ourselves, confident that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:69 The Message)
It is never too late to search for Living Bread, for Real Life, as diligently as Jackson searches for treats. ~ Anne
PS – I was able to rescue part of the loaf of bread by cutting out the chunk that Jackson bit off. No point in wasting!
Wayfinding 