Yesterday, on a Sunday afternoon, I baked the first loaves of pumpkin bread for my family for this fall season. Pumpkin bread is one of my family’s favorites this time of year. As we munched on our Sunday lunch, my kids got to talking about the food they enjoy this time of year… anticipating Thanksgiving and the Christmas season. (And we talked about the pumpkin smoothies that I had attempted the week before, which were less than successful.)
My daughter, who was home from college for the weekend, decided that her momma (me) should bake some pumpkin bread before she headed back to school, so she could take a loaf with her.
The pumpkin bread recipe that I use comes from my momma. My momma always baked her loaves in round metal coffee cans. As the bread bakes the loaves rise well beyond the rims of the coffee cans and when it is done baking and has cooled, it looks great in its cylinder shape as you remove it from the cans.
So bake some pumpkin bread I did. It made the house smell wonderful and brought memories rushing back of pumpkin bread baking through the years.
My daughter did get her loaf to take with her, this one remaining week before Thanksgiving break. Three of our sons and I cut into one of the other loaves as a tasty dessert treat after supper that night. It was still warm and the texture was just right. The first loaves are the best, I’m pretty sure.
This Monday morning, I thought about that yummy pumpkin bread as I read a devotional about holiday foods and not going overboard on indulging in them AND the way physical hunger can actually be a sign sometimes of spiritual hunger that we may not be in tune with.
I read a quote from Chris Tiegreen, “Deep in the soul of every man, woman, and child is a void that nags us for attention. We think it’s a sign of dysfunction, and we try to heal it ourselves. Some of us fill it with food, but the sense of taste is only satisfied for a moment…One day, if we’re spiritually sensitive, we understand: It’s a holy hunger, and only God can fix it….Those who have quenched their hunger with the things of this world have settled for empty calories; they’re ultimately unsatisfied. The blessing of the true hunger leads us to Jesus, the Bread of Life.”
After reading this quote, I began thinking about some symptoms in my thoughts and actions that might indicate that I am hungry for what only God can supply. I thought about wrong thinking in just the last 24 hours: anxiety, worry, jealousy, fear, envy, anger, pride, to name a few. Yuck!
Then I read some verses in John 6 that tell about a crowd that followed Jesus because He had done an incredible miracle the day before and fed them all with multiplied fish and bread. Jesus told them not to “work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life,” which the Son of God can give.
“I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in Me will never be thirsty,” Jesus said. He wasn’t talking about an endless supply of physical food; though, He knows that physical food is necessary for life. But Jesus taught that spiritual food is also necessary for life. Spiritual food is necessary for my spiritual life that will affect every other aspect of my day-in-day-out living: my physical body, my relationships, my work, my play, my everything.
So my prayer today, for myself, for my husband, for my children, as we go about our regular daily activities that involve working for food, preparing food, eating food,…that we will realize and put in right perspective our greater need for the spiritual food that Jesus and God’s Word has to offer AND that will decide to take in the spiritual nourishment God has for us today.
pieces and ponderings 