When I think about bread,
Jesus is not the first thing that comes to mind.

What I do think of are the hearty loaves on the covers of magazines.
I think of the delicious warmth that radiates off of it when it is fresh out of the oven.
I think of the times that I ate too much bread at restaurants,
so when the food came, I was already full.
I think of the irresistible smell that permeates the house as it bakes.
I think of the squeaky and annoying kneed-machine,
which whines incessantly,
but reminds me that there will be fresh bread soon.
I think of the crumbs that inevitably find their way onto my lap,
even when I try to be neat.

But as I think of Jesus,
I realize that all of these things are him.

He is what makes the hearty loaves so beautiful.
He puts off an inviting warmth,
drawing in the cold and deprived.
He fills up the hungry
and replaces the need for other sustenance.
He saturates the lives of his followers.
And even when life gets frustrating,
there is hope and excitement in the knowledge that He is coming.
The evidence of his presence is everywhere:
In us, in nature, in technology.

He is Jesus,
the Bread of Life.