Little fingers grip the countertop and watch as wrinkled hands push the sticky dough. The older pauses to add an ingredient. The younger stands on tippy-toes and delights in the sifted flour that falls like snow over the bread starter. Once the texture is right, they’ll cover it and wait for the dough to expand.
Jesus says the kingdom of God is “like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.” The promise that God’s in-breaking kingdom will one day permeate everything fills us with hope. The limits of our human bodies and the ground we walk on, in contrast, can leave us feeling stuck. When we’re caught in a pandemic, a medical diagnosis, anxious thoughts, or harmful habits, we ask, "Where is God?" If we look at the book of Jonah, we find a reluctant prophet who needs to be saved from himself. Swallowed whole and inside a sea creature, Jonah repents and praises God: “From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry.” In the dark, Jonah knows his rescue is both complete and in process. God’s intervention looks like a storm, the inside of a giant fish, vomit on the beach, a leafy plant, a worm, and a scorching east wind. It challenges Jonah. But over time through an intimate back and forth conversation, God's relentless love for a stubborn runaway, yes, but also for all people even our enemies confronts both Jonah and the reader. Today the Earth tries to bar us in too, wrap us in seaweed and pull us to the bottom of the sea. Jesus reaches in. His kingdom is in these places too. He became human with us, incarnate. He clothed himself in flesh. On the cross he starts and finishes a rescue that’s bigger than we can imagine. And in his great mercy we, like Jonah, are invited to participate. To learn along the way and to catch glimpses of the bubbling yeast of truth, goodness and beauty breaking through here. Collected believes art is one vehicle we use to see deeper and to lean in. May it meet you here, in these pages, in the middle of the Story, in the flesh of the fish, as you wait for the bread to rise. Click here to browse the whole issue.
0 Comments
|
Chavon BarryChavon is a new writer from Victoria, British Columbia. She wrestles with simple answers and is learning to listen, to be still with God. Archives
April 2022
Categories |