The Making Process

What comes to mind when you hold on to freshly baked bread with the aroma oozing through your nostrils? Do you ever think of how it was baked?

One of my uncles has a bakery, and whenever we visit them, we find ourselves in the bakery. Not that we wanted it; in fact, the very first time we went there, it was out of curiosity and amazement because we got to see how the bread was made. It was fun until we realized the rigorous process that made the freshly baked bread attractive.

The loaf pan for each size of bread is thoroughly cleaned with butter and groundnut oil; the same cleaning process is applied to the table that is used for cutting and grinding. on days when those who were too clean failed to show up. We end up cleaning the cans, which are in large numbers.

As tedious as the whole process was, the moment the bread is out of the oven and we are allowed to eat it, we sometimes forget the stress we had to go through for flour to become bread.

How it was once flour, then dough. how the dough was placed in loaf cans. how we waited for hours for the dough to increase. how we place each can in front of the ovens and watch as they load them into the oven. how the bakers look at the oven carefully so as not to burn the bread. All these experiences manage to be fascinating at the sight of the reward of fresh bread.

The stressful day suddenly becomes a promising day, and we are double blessed not only for the bread but also for the privilege of placing the butter in between hot and fresh bread. Out of craving mixed with joy, we take each bite with a smile spread across our faces. Our tired faces become relaxed like we were never stressed out.

By now, you must have been wondering if I deliberately wanted you to salivate or just made you imagine such an experience. I'm sorry about that, but the truth is, there is something I want to bring out of the whole dramatic narrative.

Here is the thing: When the ground flour is placed on the cutting table, it is cut into different sizes and kneaded into dough. If the size isn't accurate, the baker keeps adding more flour until the right size is formed. When the loaves are placed into the oven, if they are not fully baked, there is no reason to bring them out.

I've got a weird thought going through my head: what if those doughs also cry in the loaves due to the heat from the oven? Would the baker have brought them out just to pity the dough? Oops, I forgot; it was just flour that was turned into dough. However, that does not mean that it will not go through a process.

If they mistakenly skip a process, then there is nothing to do with a loaf that is not well-formed or half-baked. It's not useful to the bakers, it's not useful to the one who employed them, and it's completely useless to the not-fully-baked bread itself.

Do you not realise that our life journey—those periods that will feel the heat and discomfort the most—is literally experiencing what those bread experienced in the hands of the bakers? The Bible says that "We are clay in the hands of the potter." When the potter is working with the clay, he keeps adding, removing, and adding until it is formed into what he had in mind when he started working on it.

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He will not stop because it's getting stressful or taking longer. He will only stop until he is satisfied and it has taken the right shape. To make the clay strong enough, he needs fire to produce heat. Sometimes the heat has to increase and decrease until it's time to take them out.

We are the flour and clay; he is the baker and potter. To become exactly what He had in mind when He started working on us, we will first have to go through the making process. The making process is where we get formed, reshaped, and refined. It can be difficult, tiring, and boring, but it's an important process that requires maximum attention. If skipped or wrongly estimated, the result could be ruinous.

We all go through the MAKING PROCESS.  No one becomes proficient overnight. It takes a lot of effort to evolve into the best. A teacher would not become a teacher if he or she avoided studying or pour themselves into learning the teaching techniques. Wanting to become one is not sufficient if efforts to become one are skipped.

A pastor will not be a pastor if he or she just walks around declaring that he or she will be a pastor. He will only be called Pastor by name and not by deeds because efforts weren't made to make the declaration come true. This is also applied to every sphere of life. What is going to be isn't going to be if all you do is sing it.

And when you finally decide to go through the making process, try to tolerate it, keep going, and become a finished product. When the heat becomes unbearable, when the whole process seems to drag, when it's like you're doing the same thing over and over again, remember that the One who made you is working on you, and He will not stop because it's tough; He will only stop until you become exactly what He had in mind.

"Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you." Before you were born, I sanctified you. "I ordained you a prophet to the nations." Jeremiah 1:5 NKJV