A Recipe for Bread

By Kris Green

Ingredients:

• Water

• Flour

• Honey

• Oil

• Salt

• Yeast

Step 1

Add living water, for all growth comes from water, to a bowl. Poured out for us so that we may drink and live. This water that comes from the Baker’s heart and is purified by grace. The water should not be too hot nor cold, but just the right temperature to be accepted by a receiving heart.

Begin to stir in honey, the provision of that grace. Sweet and free and flowing, honey tells you things are not just provided for, but they are good and in abundance.

As you stir, combine the yeast. As we are given the Spirit, such things inside will begin to grow. The yeast will cause the bread to rise and take shape. The yeast will do more for you. It will give you a longing and desire to do something. While the yeast does not look like much now, if nurtured, it will blossom into something wonderful.

But now, the Divine’s mixture is just a gooey lump of potential. Still, though, it serves a purpose, calling attention to all who are around it that something is about to happen. As the three mix, they become inseparable.

Step 2

Let this mixture sit for five minutes. Things will not happen immediately. Growth will come in time. The lump will begin to rise. You might be tempted to try to force it, but you must not. The Baker knows just when the mixture has risen enough.

Timing is essential for a good bake. If it is rushed, it will not take shape. It may not look appealing to anyone, or certain parts may burn in the oven. Give it time.

Remember, the purpose of bread is to be given to others to eat.

Step 3

Stir in oil. The oil will be a sign that this bake has been set apart from all others. While you have already received grace, the oil will be another indication that you are in the presence of the Baker. Separated for a great bake, the oil will spread with the mixture.

Stir in salt. You are no longer an empty bowl waiting for purpose. You are salt and light. You give flavor to the world around you. Salt is used to preserve and to clean. It must be used wisely.

Stir in flour. Flour is made from grain ground down into a fine powder. Don’t be confined to what you know already, for others have been ground down to the Baker’s purpose to give you their knowledge and wisdom. Learn from them. Grow. Add this to your mixture so that you may find structure and texture to your bake.

Stir in honey. I will bring you to a land of milk and honey. Honey, the sign of abundant blessing, will make your Bake sweet as you give your gifts to others. As the mixture will be stirred together, there may be challenging times. In those difficult moments, there will be blessings.

The stirring may be rough. You may wish to cling to the flour or the honey to help make you feel better, but it must be spread about. This stirring is for your good, although in the moment, it may not feel good.

Step 4

On a clean surface, dump out your mixture. It has no shape you can discern. It is still a lump of potential. You may think the good work is accomplished and you should be feasting now, but you have only begun.

Beat this mixture with your hands. Knead it to get out any air pockets. Air pockets will only make the mixture appear larger and fuller than it actually is. Empty these false inflations. Humility will be key to growth. The mixture may not take this well. Kneading is sometimes rough. And it feels like a trial and temptation, but it’s part of the process for the bake.

The pressure will make the bread stronger after baking, so that it takes the proper shape. Kneading will make it smooth and ready for all to see. There is something else that you will be able to discern in this process; it is no longer a mixture, but now, it is dough.

Step 5

Put the dough in a pan and cover it with plastic. Don’t allow air in it, and let it rise for over twenty minutes.

It is easy for the mixture to come together and sometimes even to be kneaded when the Baker is there, but now, the Baker must step back. Allow the dough to rise. This will not be a long time, but the dough doesn’t always know how long it will be. It will be longer than the first time it was given an opportunity to rise. Sometimes the dough will rise only a little, and that is okay. Even a lump of dough will rise in its own way.

The yeast will be a part of how the dough rises. There may be a temptation to think the whole purpose of the bake is the yeast, but that is not true. The yeast prepares the dough to be served to others. The yeast is just an added ingredient along with all the others. The yeast helps keep the focus on where we are going with the bake, but is not the main focal point of the bake.

The dough may be tempted to think it is alone forever or it has done something wrong, but the dough is just right where it is supposed to be. It is a different feeling being kneaded by the Baker’s hands than being left alone. The dough must learn to rise with all that the Baker has put into it.

Step 6

Open the dough to air and beat it. Air pockets may come in and corrupt the bake. Force those pockets out. Humility is key. The only way to get the air pockets out is by force. The dough will need to be pushed and beaten and forced so that there is nothing in the heart of the dough that doesn’t belong there.

The Baker’s hands may feel callous as this goes on. The rough grips may be causing pain, but they are for the good of the bake. You must trust the baker’s actions as he works wisely to ensure you are ready for the steps to come.

The dough may take offense to this. That is okay. The dough only has a faint dream of what it can be. The beating process may be the worst part of the dough’s growth because it may lose hope that it will ever be bread.

This process will also help shape the dough for the future. While the dough only knows the countertop and is not keen to be aware of what is going on the in the rest of the kitchen, the dough must stay faithful to its original calling, for the Baker is at work.

Step 7

Place the dough back in the pan. Cover it again. Let is rise. Similar to step 5, but this time, after the beating process, there may be more heartbreak and desperation with the dough. Do not lose heart.

The dough may also begin to resent the pan. The pan, which at first seemed as if it were a gift so that the dough could find shape, may now feel like a prison to the dough. But do not lose heart. Prisons exist to remind us of what freedom is. Structure exists so that balance may be achieved. Discipline is the road that leads to freedom.

Preheat the oven. The Master Baker knows when a loaf is ready to be baked and prepares things that may be out of the dough’s realm. Things are in motion that the dough has no idea of what other things may happen.

Step 8

 Place the dough in the oven for 30-40 minutes until the internal temperature is 190-200 degrees.

The Master Baker knows how long to keep the dough in the oven. The oven may feel like a new kind of torment, but this is the place of ultimate growth for the dough’s purpose. In the oven that the impurities will burn away, and anything that is not needed will disappear. The dough will take shape.

Step 9

Bring out of the oven. The bread is almost ready, but more than that, all will be able to smell that something new has happened. Many will come to witness this.

When the time is right and the bread is cooled down, you will cut it and give it to others. At this point, the bake will long for the knife. It understands that it is not here for itself, but for others. It is a gift of the Baker that is ultimately to be shared. Gifts do not exist for ourselves, but for others.

Share. Enjoy. Celebrate. Come together and feast on what God has given us for the good of others.

---

Kris Green lives in Florida with his beautiful wife and two savage children. When he isn’t working his day job or writing at the crack of dawn, he’s spending time with them.

Kris has a bachelor’s degree from Trinity College of Florida in counseling. He’s been published over forty times in the last few years by the wonderful people at Nifty Lit, The Haberdasher: Peddlers of Literary Art, In Parentheses Magazine, Route 7 Review, BarBar Magazine, and many more. He’s won the 2023 Barbe Best Short Story and Reader’s Choice Award for his short story, “Redemption.”

While he often feels like he’s not qualified enough to give parenting advice, he began writing these observations within the last few years about what it means to be a father and trying to be strategic in his parenting. He’s not an expert. He doesn’t have teenagers and the headache that that encompasses. He’s not any more than a lifetime learner who upon hearing that his wife was pregnant, downloaded any book he could get his hands on about pregnancy and parenting. He is driven to do right by his kids and guide them to be as strong as possible in a world that only seems to want to hurt and steal from them.

Kris has been called quirky and unorthodox. Once, he asked someone who works with him to take out his hearing aid and allow a video of him to talk about the importance of not playing the television at max volume for his three-year-old. While he was declined his request, he is usually met with a sideways smile and a shake of the head.

Kris has been wrecked for Christ for over twenty years now. He originally went to school to be a pastor, but God closes doors and guides hearts.