mild thoughts on the baking and breaking of bread.

So, over the last couple months I’ve not been employed, which has given me a lot of free time, most of which has been spent in DeKalb with my family and getting some miscellaneous projects around the new house done before the baby comes. Anyway, I’ve also been taking some time to study bread baking. I should rephrase. I am a full-fledged bread-baking fanatic and should join a support group. I’ve always enjoyed making bread, but this…oi. It is a never-ending quest for the perfect crackling crust, the perfect crumb, the perfect flavor. I’m not going to attempt to bore anyone with the physics of bread baking. The thing that continues to fascinate me about bread is that it is the thing that Christ chose to symbolize Himself and His generosity to us. It is the food through which Christ chose to offer Himself to us—and there’s a lot to that. The bread we create “by the sweat of our brow” is firstly a symbol of Christ’s broken body that He so freely offers to us, a reminder of the life that can only be found in Him and His sacrifice, and thus a symbol of how we, too, ought to lay down our lives for one another. God chose bread to unite earthly and divine things—and it is here that the line between our physical hunger and our spiritual hunger is somewhat blurred. Eight weeks until the due date! I'm trying to sound excited (and I am), except that "eight weeks" sounds the same as "eternity" right now.