Wednesday, December 24, 2008

the process

Yesterday morning I got out all the ingredients and began to make my husband's families famous yeast roll recipe. As I covered the kitchen with ingredients it soon got ugly. My recipe book showed years of wear and stains from years gone by and I started laughing at myself when I looked down and saw that I was adding more stains as I worked.

Things went smoothly for a while until I noticed the second batch of dough didn't look at all like the first. Same ingredients, different results. (sounds like raising kids instead of dough - ha ha!) For whatever reason it just didn't work, so I pitched it and started a third batch. Not a happy time!

This process is slow and takes several hours because you have to keep punching the dough and letting it raise again and again. Finally it's time to roll the dough out and cut out the triangle shapes. I'll never forget the precision that Ron's grandmother used in this process (unlike mine - she is probably cringing as I write)... anyway, she kept from year to year a cardboard triangle to insure each roll be perfect and equal. NOT ME! After cutting the rolls out and rolling them into crousant type shapes, they have to raise again before baking. Now you know why I only bake them twice each year!

When done the reward is great and everyone is happy. But the process...long.

You may wonder where I'm going with this, not trying to over spiritualize this but while baking I thought about how much this abbreviated process mirrored life. It's a long never ending process that takes us through a lot. Original ingredients, growing, taking a punch now and then, standing back up, final product in the end is the goal. Am I moving toward the ultimate goal of community with the God of Christmas? I want to be, I have an honest desire to eliminate things that prevent me from moving toward Him this year. I asked Him just this morning to reveal what has to go. The process leads me toward the goal, it just seems too long some times.

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