A Grain of Wheat

This looks like a photo from the prairies!  It's actually from right here in town, in a church courtyard.

We take our food for granted you know.  Every once in a while when I'm saying grace, I like to think about the whole process that happens in getting it to the table.  Bread begins (if you're able to eat wheat of course) with wheat.  I think of the wheatfields in Kansas.  Golden.  Acre upon acre, sometimes as far as the eye can see, the wheat waves in the wind which never stops blowing on the prairie.  Farmers plant it all.  Farmers with families of every sort.  Families that gather at meal times, that have endless chores to do and that work long days during good weather.  They pray for rain, or for sunshine, depending on what the crops need.  Those farmers watch that wheat because it is their livelihood.  It is important.  And so much is invested in those crops.  It can mean the difference between keeping and losing the farm, if it's still a family farm.  If all goes well, there will be new clothes in the fall for school.  Perhaps a new tractor or some other expensive piece of equipment that will help to keep the farm running.

And the wheat makes its way to the mill, where it is ground into flour.  And then the flour makes its way to the bakeries, where loaves of bread are baked.  Or sometimes it makes its way to my kitchen, where I knead the dough into wonderful, fresh baked bread that tastes like nothing else does, right from the oven.  And the wheat is only one ingredient of good bread.  There is also salt and oil and yeast and milk...well, you get the picture.

So much goes into making a loaf of bread.  And so much goes into the different parts of our lives.  It is good to stop and remember all the connections from time to time, and to be grateful for the gifts which come to us with great effort by others.