Sourdough: Bubbling to Make a Masterpiece

I have had for a long time on my bucket list to begin using sourdough starter for baking. I’ve read. I’ve bought the books. I’ve read again. However, I have just not taken the time to start. There has always been this or that to do instead. Many thanks to one of my sisters, I was given a jar of sourdough starter.

Sourdough starter is fermented flour and water. The definitions of ferment are:

• Something, such as a yeast, bacterium, mold, or enzyme that causes fermentation
• Fermentation
• State of agitation or of turbulent change or development

Clearly in baking the definition is tied to the first definition above. For those that don’t know, sourdough is a process. There is an amount of accuracy that is involved to ensure that you have a healthy starter. First you start your starter, then it requires routinely feeding it with water and flour every day or taking the steps to keep it from fermenting too fast. It bubbles and grows into a tantalizing mix. Eventually you can use the starter for many baking items that are mouthwatering masterpieces. 

I have come quickly to find each evening when I divide and feed my starter how therapeutic it has become for me. I anticipate the tasty bite of a baked masterpiece it will become. I appreciate the time it requires me to be in my kitchen which is a place I love to be. I am amazed at how it changes and develops each day from so little. It reminds me of the true gift of patience.

As I have been working my sourdough for a few weeks, I have realized that we are God’s sourdough. God has us from the start, through the journey and a promise of eternity with him in the end. Like the last definition we are always changing into something great.

Our requirement each day is to feed ourselves. We do that by going to God in prayer, by reading and studying his word and giving our troubles to him. He has designed each of us in his eye to be the masterpiece that he designed. By being in his word, we have a daily dose of therapy that helps us work through our trials in life. We have the recipe for success if we don’t always try to use our own elements and give ourselves the patience to know that God has everything for us in his time. 

Psalm 139:14 reads “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works: my soul knows it very well.”

Ecclesiastes 3:11 reads “He hath made every thing beautiful in his time.”

We are wonderfully made and all beautiful! We slowly bubble into the amazing person God designed us to be. Praise God for letting our process be slow in order to know the true gift we are given. 

If you are interested in a short devotional to add to studying God’s word, you may enjoy this great devotional we created, “At The End of My Rope.”

Contributed by Jessica Clemens