All I seem to hear at the moment is how the entire nation is delighted to see Strictly back on our screens, personally, I have never been a dancer and never enjoyed events like the Chapel watchnight socials, particularly when one of the older ladies from the Church would drag me up and force me to enjoy the Dashing White Sergeant or the Gay Gordon’s. I was told how easy the Waltz was, but simply never had the rhythm or desire to pull it off. Never even felt comfortable in discos and never understood why dancing was so popular. I didn’t mind doing the speech at our wedding almost forty years ago, but the first dance was a nightmare, Karen and I were equally hopeless, and I was relieved when the dance floor filled up and we got lost in the crowd. I get it why some people love strictly, but sorry, it’s not my thing.
My joy comes in seeing the return of The Great British Bake Off and the programme is exactly the sort of thing I love to watch. Looking back, I think that my mum would have loved to have had a daughter, please don’t misunderstand, there was never any doubt at all that she loved my brother and I as much as any mother could love a child. We might live in more informed times today, but in the 1960’s it was a bit unusual for two young lads to learn how to darn socks, knit and sew. One of my mum’s favourite pastimes was baking, she baked bread, pastries, biscuits, and cakes, and best of all cakes. I can remember kneeling on a chair in the kitchen and learning the difference between mixing butter and sugar and creaming them, before we ever owned an electric mixer, we had to beat the mixture by hand. All these years later, I can still hear my mum saying “cut and fold” as the flour was added to the mix. Giving my ego a good polish, I admit that even today, I can still turn out a half decent cake.
The latest series of The Great British Bake off started yesterday evening and twelve eager contestants set about being tested week after week to be identified as the best baker in the nation. Even though I can bake, I would never dream of entering a competition like this, even the poor bloke who went out in the very first episode is possibly streets ahead of me and my efforts, and I would not want to face the humiliation of Paul Hollywood telling me how appalling my cake was in front of the thousands of people watching the programme. I still find it amazing that somebody, somewhere in history, discovered that by mixing a certain set of ingredients together in certain quantities and baking them in an oven can turn out a delicious cake, or biscuits, bread, or pastries, that person was a genius in my opinion.
Church or any other organization works along the same lines as baking a cake, we need the right ingredients in the right quantities, there may well be larger amounts of some items than other, but each is of equal importance and missing one ingredient out will affect the final result, we all have a part to play, and harmony is found when we all offer our best.
Prayer. God of love, thank you for calling me as one of the ingredients in your great mission to the world, help me to play the part you have written for me. As I play my part, help me to encourage others to play theirs, help me to value my brothers and sister and may we all work together for the glory of your name. Amen