Yeast Bread

My children watched a movie yesterday. It was one we'd seen before, so instead of snuggling in beside them, I went out to the kitchen to make bread. I could still hear it plainly. The tale was an old one, biblical in fact, about a boy and his colorful coat. I grew up hearing the story, but like much that's meant to enlighten, its more deeply layered meanings often escaped me as I got caught up in more obvious aspects. It was easy  to appreciate the lessons about  showing favoritism, Joseph's loyalty, his brothers' lack of it and their eventual comeuppance, the importance of forgiveness. As I listened from the kitchen, elbow-deep in dough, the movie  reached the part where Joseph is languishing in prison from a crime he didn't commit. There were no words at that point, only music, but the scene still played out in my mind; Joseph nurturing a tiny seedling as he grows older and wiser, and it grows into a tree. (I don't remember those exact particulars in the biblical version, but the animated metaphor for faith was clear.) As the music played on a new thought came to me. What I hadn't considered before was that Joseph's gift of interpreting dreams sat dormant for a long, long time. As a youngster, he had used his gift in a self serving way to taunt his brothers. It took years to develop into something truly useful. He wasn't the "Prince of Dreams" all at once - there was a process of becoming, even when the situation seemed hopeless. Just like dough, our talents need a little leavening & nurturing, and a little punching down & time in the fire before they can rise up fully and become something truly wonderful.