Why Carb Queen?

My parents have always called me the “Carb Queen” – because I adore pasta and bread. They’re versatile, the best food if you ask me, and, overall, delicious.

I’ve always loved them both, but lately bread is gaining an advantage.

Recently, I’ve begun to bake, but my doctors have taken away simple sugars which leaves me and bread almost alone. And I’m starting to like it that way.

Bread is variety – you can do almost anything with it. Butter. Peanut butter. Jams, jellies, or preserves. Dip it, rip it, dunk it.

No matter what I do to it, I can always be sure it will satisfy and maintain its bread-y essence.

I believe there’s a reason that the Lord’s prayer includes the line, “give us this day, our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11). God called His provision for the Israelites, “Manna,” or “bread from heaven” (Exodus 16:4). Moreover, Jesus referred to Himself as the, “Bread of Life” (John 6:35).

One of my favorite authors, Shauna Niequist, describes herself as “a bread-and-wine person.” A harkening back to communion, which she explains thusly, “As a Christian, I recognize them as food and drink, but also, at the very same time, I recognize them as something much greater – mystery and tradition and symbol … The two together are the sacred and the material at once, the heaven and earth, the divine and the daily.”

(Can you tell I’m obsessed with her writing? Really, go buy Bread and Wine, it’s be dog-earred by the time you’re through the first chapter.)

Her words and these verses mingle and echo through my mind as I flour the counter, as I knead the dough (or don’t depending on the recipe), and as I peek into the darkness under the striped towel that conceals my rising prize.

Obviously, I’m a girl who loves her bread, but what if I got obsessed with the Living Bread? What if I ate this in remembrance of Him (Luke 22:19)? What if I ate and drank and did everything in honor of Him who sustains me (1 Corinthians 10:31)? What if I watched for the places that the divine meets the daily?

Bread is messy; it’s a lot of measurements that look like sticky chaos, sort of come together, are in the dark for a while, are changed by heat, and then come out delicious.

My life is messy too; I’m a newlywed, battling multiple chronic illnesses, and looking down the barrel of a lot of transitions.

I guess all that’s left is to be on the lookout for the deliciousness.