Notes to the Lord:Dough

Scripture Reflections:Matthew 13

³³He told them still another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough."

Lord Jesus--Dough? As I was ushering at a church service the other night and collecting the offering the thought occurred to me that there are those think that church is a place that only wants money and collects it from the impressionable and gullible. So they think we worry about dough, but not the dough that you are speaking of.

So what do you mean Lord when you say dough? How is the kingdom like dough and yeast?

When I am in the mix and it feels as if everything in my life is in the mixing bowl of life...I am really just where you want me to be? For the process to work water and flour have to come together. That is not always comfortable or pretty. For the mixture to be something more than a mess yeast has to come into the mix. And then there is the time it takes to let the dough rise...the yeast has to do its work. In time it leaves the whole batch changed.

Lord Jesus--Remind me that the process continues to change me, even when it seems like nothing is happening. Sometimes the dough needs time to rise. But beyond time, the yeast has to have extensive impact touching each part of the mixture if it is going to be bread. Change has to work through the whole batch...nothing worse than heavy flat bread.

But sooner of later...there is that smell of bread in the oven and somehow I am ok with the process, the mess and the mixing bowls.

³⁴Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable. ³⁵So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet:

"I will open my mouth in parables,
I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world."

Lord Jesus--Help me to accept the process, mixing,mess and waiting. Continue your work in my heart and life...and in the lives of your people.