Psalm Book PDF

What once started as a simple hope to make a decent loaf to add to meals is now a regular bread routine of ordering flour by the 50-pound sack, feeding her starter daily, having something constantly rising, baking, and marked for some meal or someone. “Bread is a staple now, not an extra.” It’s been a helpful motivation to see Isaac, Emmerson, and Oliver enjoy it. “It brings me a lot of joy to be able to provide homemade bread for my family.” When she and Isaac began attending Sojourn, their appreciation for the Lord’s Supper deepened as communion was taken weekly through intinction– real bread torn and dipped into the common cup. During Covid, when sealed, pre-packaged elements were used, she reflects, “I missed the act of tearing the bread and dipping it.” Thus, when that season was closing, Meghan volunteered to begin making the bread herself. Now, part of her weekly bread routine is praying over the loaf as she hand-kneads and bakes it, in preparation for us to take it together as we remember God’s gracious provision and sacrifice in Christ for our sins. Amidst this weekly routine, Meghan is thankful how making bread illuminates the truths in the Bible. She recalls scriptures that warn about yeast, alluding to how a little sin or false teaching works outward, just as even minute amounts of yeast completely change a whole batch of dough. She reflects that as most people today rely on the store for bread, making bread directly presents us with that truth. “Talking about yeast…” she shares, “That’s exactly what happens in a loaf of bread! And unless you’re making bread, you don’t see that.” And yet, as good and sustaining as bread is, David’s song is boasting that his joy from God is greater still! In essence, “Take your grain hoards, but give me Jesus.” Meghan resonates with David here as she shares that “even as much as thinking about Jesus as ‘the bread of life’ connects beauty and joy to breadmaking, I also always think about the scripture: ‘Man does not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord’.” She reflects on the richness of having a hobby that nourishes and delights others, yet notes the greater richness what God’s abundant joy in her heart brings to the whole process and product.

Whether our hands knead bread or build homes, may our hands always be open to do His work with the same joy in our hearts proclaimed in Psalm 4!