Discover Contemplation With the Parables & Your Loved OnesSample

Until it was torn down in the name of progress, I lived very near a bread baking company. When I’d drive by as the bread was baking, I swear I could feel tears of joy spring to my eyes as I smelled that unmistakable, exquisite aroma of bread baking. Bread is life giving, and it comes to us through mysterious processes that are worth pondering.

Have you ever considered the astonishing microorganisms that can be found all over creation and throughout our bodies? Generally unseen by the human eye, fungi form networks and relationships that make all life possible. I’m not an evolutionary biologist, but I’m curious about the endless connections and the life that thrives as a result of fungal activity, and fungi have always seemed mysterious and magical to me. In particular, I’m in awe of bread. For millennia, we humans have fed a type of fungi known as yeast so that we can then feed ourselves with bread.

There’s nothing like being nourished with good warm bread that has been baked from a starter and comes to you straight from the oven. I love the way yeast bubbles, and don’t even get me started on that funky, sweet smell of bread as it rises and bakes. If I could smell it all day, I’d be a blissful person. Bread is crafted right out of the elements in the air. Bread-making is an ancient art that nourishes both the maker and the people it feeds.

Wonder together: Yeast is one of the most marvel-filled substances in the cosmos. It’s on our hands, and it’s in the air. From yeast, we make bread and wine; we are nourished by these microorganisms that are all around us, yet invisible to our human eyes. Yeast breaks down sugars, and carbon dioxide gas is released through a process known as fermentation. You can quickly show this process to children at this week’s gathering by combining a teaspoon of sugar, a packet of yeast, and ¼ cup of warm water in a clear bowl. Within ten minutes or less, the mixture will begin to bubble and foam, which means the microbes are producing carbon dioxide. Wonder together: how does yeast and the scientific process of fermentation teach us lessons about scarcity and abundance?

Contemplate the parable of the leaven, the marvelousness of bread, and the ways kitchens bring God’s children together (Matthew 13:33).