cross marked

I really enjoy working with dough, making bread and buns and rolls ....
there is something deep within me that is touched with the burying of my fingers in the belly of soft dough .....
there is a need to push and press and squeeze and punch without being harsh or meanly aggressive ..
it is important to eliminate unwanted air bubbles as even tiny pockets of air have the possibility to alter the final product .... these tiny, little inoccuous bubbles can expand out of control in the heat required while baking ...
soooooo, I was making hot cross buns and wondering why they are called HOT cross buns as I was shaping each wee ball and then flattening it with the palm of my hand before the final resting and rising time ..... bits of dough with all their spicy perfume buried themselves in the nooks and crannies of my hand ...... we were inextricably one during this process .....just before popping them into the heat of the oven, one has to carve a cross into each top ..... care has to be taken in this carving .... if you carve too deep, or not deep enough, the outcome is affected ...one has to just break the flesh of the bun ....then during the baking heat this cross is beautifully accentuated .... this I guess is the HOT cross ....

and is this not like us ....... during our fomation time with Jesus, He shapes us, prods us, pushes and squeezes us to eliminate anything that should not be within us, then gently marks us so that when we go through the inevitable fire His mark will be seen, will be highlighted ...... it is not a surface mark, but a mark that has required a crucifying of our flesh ......the crucifixion fire releasing His fragrance that is forever part of who we are ..

and even after washing and cleaning up, tiny little remnants of the dough of Who He is will always remain .....  sometimes I get dough under my fingernails and I wonder if there is the clay of me under the fingernails of Almighty God ......