{"id":785,"date":"2013-04-04T15:10:35","date_gmt":"2013-04-04T15:10:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kandynolesstevens.com\/?p=785"},"modified":"2013-04-04T15:10:35","modified_gmt":"2013-04-04T15:10:35","slug":"the-breaking-of-bread","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/?p=785","title":{"rendered":"The breaking of bread"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"homemade<\/a>

homemade bread and grape juice for Easter<\/p><\/div>\n

I have survived the Crash of 2013.\u00a0 Never heard of it, you say? Well, I guess you probably haven\u2019t.\u00a0 My personal computer died a slow death.\u00a0 I fought a valiant fight of frugality, but in the end, I had to purchase a new one.\u00a0 They surely aren\u2019t made like old Betsy.\u00a0 I love that old gal \u2013 my 1968-ish Singer sewing machine. But I digress . . . I have lots I want to share.\u00a0 I apologize ahead of time that my blogs this week will seem a little outdated due to my lack of technology.\u00a0 I considered archiving them for a year, but I feel God has given them to me to write.\u00a0 So, write I shall.<\/p>\n

Long ago as a new bride, the church we were attending held special events during Holy Week.\u00a0 One of those special events was the Thursday night service:\u00a0 The Blessing of the Breads.\u00a0 Each year, the church leadership asked ladies to make a special recipe of unleavened bread which makes about 8 loaves per batch.\u00a0 They call upon members to make the bread and bring it to the service to be blessed.\u00a0 Afterwards, each family (or individual) is given a loaf to take home and to remember Good Friday in their own homes, reflecting on the Last Supper Jesus had with his followers.<\/p>\n

Growing up in a different faith, the whole idea was quite mystical to me.\u00a0 I had never paid any attention to the fact that bread was the food item that Jesus chose to represent the brokenness of His body.\u00a0 As I grew older I began to realize that every culture on earth has some form of bread.\u00a0 Using bread to share the story of Jesus life and death\u00a0would be symbolic\u00a0to every person in the entire world.\u00a0 To me, that is something quite incredible to ponder.<\/p>\n

Even though I had been living on my own for almost 3 years prior, it came as quite a shock when the sweet, little, white-haired lady of the kitchen circle called me –\u00a0a very new \u201cgrown-up\u201d –\u00a0\u00a0to be one of the bakers.\u00a0 I was giddy with excitement and a tad bit nervous too.\u00a0 What if I messed up God\u2019s bread? \u00a0I love to cook and to experiment; so onward we went. Turns out it wasn\u2019t that difficult of a recipe and we created pretty nice little loaves.<\/p>\n

I remember the aura that travelled with us as we walked to the tiny off-white stucco church that evening with our\u00a0basket of bread, nurturing it until we placed it on the altar.\u00a0 When we left the service that night, we took one of our own lovingly-made\u00a0loaves back home with us.\u00a0 There was something quite calming in the ritual.<\/p>\n

Twenty years later, the breaking of the bread is still a tradition in our family.\u00a0 We make the same bread each Easter, a tradition that we cherish. The well-worn and tattered recipe is the same one we now share with our current church family each time we have communion. \u00a0Definitely one, I wish to pass down to my children and grandchildren, when I become the white haired Jesus lady.<\/p>\n

Truthfully, I am transported back to that\u00a0precious phone call each time I mix up a batch.\u00a0 I am filled with the same feeling of being loved and valued as someone who can offer comfort, even it is just a simple round of unleavened bread.\u00a0 And that is the yummiest of feelings!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have survived the Crash of 2013.\u00a0 Never heard of it, you say? Well, I guess you probably haven\u2019t.\u00a0 My personal computer died a slow death.\u00a0 I fought a valiant fight of frugality, but in the end, I had to purchase a new one.\u00a0 They surely aren\u2019t made like old Betsy.\u00a0 I love that old […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}