The Littlest Challah

I wasn't suppose to work today. I had plans. Lovely plans. Plans to fill and enjoy my one day off this week; but GOD had other plans.......

You know, the whole concept of giving and sharing begins before we can crawl. We reach out to a parent to cuddle, parents plop food in little cherub mouths, and infants offer a gooey, partially munched bite to the parent. From there, our sharing experience expands to toys, time, parents, really anything we label as 'mine'!

Sharing and giving are things that we prescribe to neatly packaged and purposeful exchanges, things we deem okay to give. Anything outside this orderliness is referred to as stealing or being taken from us.

Challah is the Hebrew word for 'portion' and is also used for the Sabbath bread baked each Friday. Traditionally a pinch of dough is portioned off and thrown to the back of the oven as an offering. Strange, how we are okay with segregating what we 'give' and what we withhold for our own use. GOD is our generous benefactor who exemplifies generosity to perfection, yet we beneficiaries ration out what we give, how often and how much, a mere pinch of challah.

So, back to this morning ... My church was having a fund raising event for missions that included box lunches, car wash, rummage sale etc. Since I did not have anything to contribute to the sales, I offered to bake for the workers. Last night I ironically prepared challah dough to make into coiled orange buns and mollases ginger cookies so that I could bake them fresh this morning, all the while thinking about the concept of portioning out what we give to GOD and others. However, just before midnight, I received a phone call from work asking me to cover the 6 a.m. shift.

GOD reminded me that He knows the plans for me and orders my footsteps accordingly and that there is joy in serving Him when it is done for His glory. Giving up myself is usually the greatest and most costly gift of sharing because it relinquishes 'my' rights. No matter what my hand finds to do, if my motive is to showcase GOD's love for others, then it really does not matter whether the pastries go to the church group or the work group, it does not matter whether I spend time with one cause or another. GOD will utilize the littlest challah or the biggest challah to its most effective purpose.

If the mail man always delivers, then doing GOD's work will always deliver the results He desires! Give GOD the whole Challah and let Him do the portioning!