The Best Part of Baking is in the Waiting

On the First of January this past year I had much to reflect on; I also had much to prepare.  My family has learned over the course of the last decade that they eat well when I am home.  I decided this year to cook a portion of the feast for New Years day.  Through the generations, my family has followed the old tradition of eating pork and cabbage on New Years day in hope of a prosperous year.  Many times in the last three months I have questioned if we ate enough or if that luck had run out.  It has been a difficult time with many cares, concerns, and decisions, and a lot of waiting.  This evening I was looking back through some old Facebook posts, laughing at the memories evoked by the pictures and comments during the month of January.  The winter of 2014, saw some record low temperatures, which led to multiple days of waiting.  Waiting for the heater to kick on, waiting for the snow to stop, waiting for the city wide State of Emergency to be lifted, simply a lot of waiting.  I was drawn today to my first post of the new year.  It also had to do with waiting.

To go with the annual New Year's meal I was baking bread.  I mixed the ingredients together the day before and I woke extremely early on the first of the year to make good work and prepare for more waiting.  As I sat in anticipation of my next move I began to reflect on the process.  So even though it centers on New Years Day, I believe it is something we can appreciate and need reminding of the whole year through.  I hope that it will bless you as it has again blessed me today. Here is a link to the bread recipe. http:allrecipes.com/recipe/no-knead-artisan-style-bread/. If you bake it make sure you break it and share it.  God bless!


There is something incredibly moving about starting the New Year by waking up at 6 AM (not a school day) to make bread for my family. As I work the dough again I turn on morning prayer through http://www.pray-as-you-go.org/home/This mornings reflection uses the following reading and focuses on the opening line where Paul says "But when the fullness of time had come......." What an interesting phrase. It suggests that everything had to be in place in its proper time and order for God's purpose to be fully accomplished. The reader posed the question "Is there something in your life or coming to fruition that you must wait for the "fullness of time?" My spirit is anxious as I begin this year, for I see God working His purpose while patiently preparing the "fullness of time." This was brought home to me in the making of this bread.

The process began by combining all the ingredients yesterday before noon, and covering up the infant dough and waiting. Waiting for quite some time (18 hours). During prayer I turned out the dough and worked into a ball, at which time I covered it again and wait (another 2 hours). When that time is accomplished, I will place the dough into the pot, set it in a hot oven, and wait (another hour). At which point I will set the "completed" bread on a cooling rack and wait (another few hours till the New Years Meal). Then finally, "when the fullness of time has come," I will say the blessing and break the bread with my family.

This new year (and every day) I pray that I will have peace in the waiting. That in the "fullness of time," the bread of my spirit may be ready to be broken for what God has prepared.

The rest of the appointed verse brings about this reasoning; "[But when the fulness of time had come] God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying "Abba! Father!" So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir , through God." (Galatians 4:4-7) Pray with me, as I pray with you, that we all learn to rejoice in the waiting.