Guest Blogger From 54 Years Ago

This Bread Which We Bless Daily

From the West Green Tree Church of the Brethren Newsletter
May 21, 1955
by Floy Royer Eshleman

Back of the loaf is the snowy flour,
Back of the flour the mill,
Back of the mill the wheat, the sower—
The sun and our Father’s will.
-Maltbie Babcock

About 10 years ago, while living in the home of a university professor in a central Illinois town, I learned the art of baking bread. I learned it, not in a home economics kitchen nor from the professor’s wife, but from an aged grandmother in a home whose homey philosophy and zest for living were contagious. I was a young bride then and probably felt that baking our bread was a contribution for the family budget. The experience of taking fresh, crusty loaves of bread from the oven soon became far more than an economic matter; it symbolized for me the fulfillment of my own life in creative activity and became a medium through which I could share the love of God in my life with others. Since that time hundreds of loaves of bread have come from my oven and have become a part of the way of living in our family.

The processes of baking bread and cultivating human life are similar in many ways. A loaf of bread must have wholesome ingredients, must be kneaded, left to rise, punched down, shaped into loaves and left to rise again. It is then ready to be placed in the over. Life is created and transformed in the slow, unseen, but sure processes as yeast working in the dough and the heat of the oven on the loaf. And the warm loaf from the oven must be consumed to fulfill the purpose of its creation. This creation becomes strength and nourishment for my family and produces satisfaction for me which can not be realized in the spectator role of life.

My heart is always warmed when my family joins hands in our family circle to sing: “Back of the loaf is the snowy flour.” I have had a part in bringing this fuller realization of God to my family through this bread that we bless daily.

An aged sister visiting in our home remarked that one thing she would do differently if she had her life to live over again would be to spend more time with her children. One of the most effective ways we can do this is in shared work experiences .The little hands and the little eyes follow each step of the way. And by these living experiences we transmit unconsciously our Christian faith to our children.
The preparing and serving of food can be more than the mechanical process of fixing it. As we are mindful of the ingredients of a loaf of bread, so should we bear in mind the content and beauty of each food we serve. Is it nutritious and attractive? Will it help develop strong bodies and clear minds? Will it bring all who eat into a fuller relationship with God? In the service of baking the communion bread at West Green Tree the ministers’ and deacons’ wives prepare their own lives in worship and consecration to God. This spirit permeates the afternoon’s activity and has followed me to my home in the baking of bread in my kitchen. It is an important part of the blessing of the bread, the breaking and the giving.

Attitudes of worship and temperance find expression in many ways in the kitchen; in devotion of self to Christ, in avoidance of overwork, in effective household management and in the combinations and amounts of foods served to avoid waste. Some of the groaning tables of yesterday (or today?) would not have pleased our Master if he had dropped in unexpectedly as a guest. If Christ is the unseen Guest at each meal should we not then be conscious of the type of meal we set before him?

Every kitchen can be a workshop for the growing and unfolding of God’s kingdom in our daily lives. Traditionally, the Brethren love feast and communion service have renewed and strengthened in a beautiful manner our relationship to God and his people. This service symbolizes a daily devotion in family and community living. Jesus was known in the blessing and breaking and giving of bread. He is still known in the family where the bread is baked and blessed, broken ad shared daily in his name!