Kneading The Dough

Christ is the bread of life. We are to become like Christ. Studying the bread making process can be helpful in learning how we can become more like Christ. First of all, Christ was born to a mortal mother just like every other person who has ever been born, so we basically are made of all the same ingredients that Christ was. After you've mixed the flour and water and yeast and all the other ingredients, you have to knead the dough. This requires stretching it out and folding it back in on itself, and then stretching it out and then folding it back in on itself. As the water and flour combine into strands of gluten, the kneading process interweaves these stands to give the dough more strength and texture and a structure to allow for the yeast to inflate these little pockets uniformly with carbon dioxide. After the dough is kneaded, it needs to be proved, which is when it is allowed to rest and rise and grow. The trials and challenges we face in life are like the kneading of the dough. We have been given agency and the light of Christ, and these two combine into strength and power and virtue, and as we are called to stretch, pushed beyond our limits, sometimes we fail and we get folded back in on ourselves. But then we are stretched again, and folded again. And as we are kneaded again and again by life's challenges, we are building character and integrity and a solid foundation. God the Father and His Son said that they would prove us. Sometimes we are called to wait upon the Lord. Christ has given us his light and his Spirit and sometimes when we are called to wait it seems like nothing is happening, but He is filling us with the leaven of the Kingdom of Heaven, and He is building us up and causing us to rise and grow. He is proving us. He is helping us to become like Him, to become the bread of life.