Crumbs!

Picture our fellowship as a loaf of bread.

Would it be brown or white?

Wholemeal, granary, with large air holes or doughy and heavy?

I like to think of it as a seeded, nutty loaf, maybe with some malt and the odd sultana!

I can say this as a coeliac; the sort of loaf we don’t want to be is gluten free!

It is the gluten that holds bread together, if you’ve been at communion when we handed round gluten free bread you know it falls apart, turns into crumbs and is hard to swallow as it stays dry and separate.

A whole gluten free loaf is a rather brittle thing, so our fellowship loaf would be better with a bit of give, and able to hold together when dropped!

So, the gluten is an illustration of love, which helps us stick by each other when things get difficult, the masks come off and sometimes we are not so nice to be with.

We are one body, and love holds us all together.

That doesn’t mean we are all the same, in fact, it is how we love and appreciate our differences that make us so fascinating to others.

Nuts and seeds are both great nutritionally, especially together, and we are healthiest when we have a varied diet.

God has made us uniquely and put us together, and He knows what He is doing, so we will grow best when we co-operate with where we are and those we are with.

Decide which bit of the loaf you are, or feel God is growing you to be, but don’t look at others and copy them, be your own sultana!