Casandra Martin

Homemade bread is a regular treat at our house. I enjoy the process of mixing flour, yeast, molasses, and water together, kneading it, and then watching it rise and change into something delicious. About once a week, you can catch the aroma of freshly baking bread drifting through our house.

Today was bread baking day. I decided to try a new twist. I rolled out the yeasty mix, rubbing spices into the dough. It rose up beautifully in the pan and the smell of cinnamon bread invited us to the dinner table.

We ate our supper, and my son especially enjoyed the cinnamon bread. “Mom,” he said. “If heaven had a taste, this would be it.” I laughed. I had never really thought about heaven having a taste, but I like the idea that it might be like cinnamon bread.

I wrapped up the other half of the loaf to share with some friends. Desire and panic crowded my son’s face. “You are going to give it away?” he asked. I told him not to worry. I know how to make more.

I caught a reflection of my own heart in his eyes. God pours blessings, opportunities, provision, and grace into every one of my days. And so many times, He calls me to pack some of them up and share them with others. My tendency is to want to hang onto all of it. I like it. I enjoy it. It is “mine.” God gives me the same answer that I gave my son. He tells me not to worry. He has an inexhaustible supply of grace, an ocean’s depth full of love, an unending supply of power and purpose, and a limitless storehouse of blessings. All for me.

“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work with us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” – Ephesians 3:20-21

My Jesus Resolution today is to remember that I can’t out give God. Giving it away is a demonstration of trust – trust that He is faithful, that He cares, and that He will always provide exactly what I need when I need it. Every time that I share one of His blessings with someone else, He is able to use my gift in two ways. He begins to work through the gift in the lives of those who receive it. He also uses the act of giving to shape my heart to look a little more like Jesus.