Bread of Life

I’ve just made bread.

It’s gluten-free “mock” rye bread.

Is there any smell that can compare to fresh baked bread?

The gluten-free version is no different. It’s heavenly.

It was this time last year that Covid was stealing tastes and smells.  So, I’m taking it all in today.  What a gift the senses are.  You know, I think I have taken for granted my whole life this gift to both smell and taste.  It’s not that I take for granted what I smell.  Like the bread.  I’ve long thanked God for food that is set before me.  What I have taken for granted is the fact that I CAN smell or that I CAN taste.  It’s quite the gift because there wasn’t one ding-dang thing I could do to change the fact that I couldn’t do either one this time last year.  I do not think I have ever in my life thanked Him that I could.

There’s a story Jesus illustrates with ten men who were healed, but only one came back to thank Him.  Jesus said, “Didn’t I heal 10?  Where are the other 9?  Only 1 returned unrestrained to give glory to God?”

What faith there was that his healing made him think of the healer.

So today, I’m breathing it all in knowing good and well that nothing I did earned myself the return of these senses.  And, they surely don’t always last as long as we do.  King David in the Book of Samuel said, “I am 80-years-old today and food and wine are no longer tasty.”  This came to mind at the same time we were caring for my dad at 86 and this 5 feet nothing man at 200+ pounds was not enjoying eating and drinking anything either.  Not even the smell and taste of a good loaf of bread.

It gives new meaning to the verse. “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”

It’s the Lord who’s good.

He is the bread of life.

I want to be the one out of ten to give Him thanks.

2 Samuel 19:34

Luke 17:17

Psalm 34:8

John 6:48