Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates. Proverbs 31: 30-31
My sister arrived a couple weeks ago with produce from her garden. Beautiful produce. Mammoth produce. Photogenic produce. “I thought you could make zucchini bread,” she said, “you can get four loaves out of one zucchini.”
So I began. Zucchini Bread is not hard to make, but unlike popping the peel off a banana for Banana Bread, you have to take a peeler to zucchini and slice off the dark, green outer covering. This particular zucchini did not want to take off it’s coat! Finally denuded of it’s rich color, I took a large, sharp knife and began to cut the zucchini into chunks that could fit into my food processor. Again, the zucchini balked at my knife as if it did not wish to be hacked into pieces.
I placed the chunks of zucchini into the food processor and watched as the gorgeous courgette became a light green, pureed version of itself. Finally pulverized, it bore no resemblance to the dark green beauty my sister had gifted me, but now, it was ready to be useful. Ready to become moist, fragrant zucchini bread.
In my life, in my faith walk, I feel like that zucchini sometimes. I present my ‘best’ self to God; my cleaned up, ‘this is how I want to appear’ self, thinking I am ready to be of service. But God in His infinite wisdom begins to peel back my exterior to find what He is looking for deep inside. I don’t like it! I don’t like to feel exposed and naked, stripped of the clothes and accessories that hide the real me.
But God tells me that He has created me and knows me, I can hide nothing from Him. No outer covering prevents Him from seeing me in all my flawed and flabby wonder. Its tough to swallow, and just when I get almost comfortable with the knowledge that He sees all of me, knows all about me, and still loves me, I feel a gentle poke.
Call it a knife, a food processor or pruning shears, but by any name it is a reminder that God’s desire is for me to be conformed into the image of His Son. He is reshaping me to become more not less; sculpting me into a work of art that is useful for the building of His kingdom.
Sometimes He must use a large chisel to chip away at parts of my life that He wants to change. Like the zucchini I balk at those times. Change is hard, old habits and routines and plans are familiar and safe, what if change is painful or scary or turns me into something I don’t even recognize . . . like delicious zucchini bread.
There are multiple things I could have done with the zucchini: bread, muffins, veggie tray, veggie carving, zucchini casserole, vegetable lasagna, etc… The worst thing I could have done was let it go to waste. Without changing it in some way, it would have rotted on my counter and been good for nothing. Whether it requires peeling and slicing, pureeing or pruning, I want God to reshape my life to make it useful for Him.
My sister is the Proverbs 31 woman inside and out. Beautiful, talented, and smart as well as kind, compassionate and hard-working she is a great role model to many and is not often wrong. She was a little off on her zucchini estimate however, it made six loaves! Recipe is below, you will need two or three small, grocery store variety zucchinis if you can’t find a giant one! Most people merely grate the zucchini, but I prefer to puree. It gives the bread a terrific texture.
Zucchini Bread
- 3 eggs, beaten
- 1 cup cooking oil
- 2 cups grated or pureed zucchini
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 tsp cinnamon
- 3 cups Gold Medal Flour
Mix together eggs, oil, zucchini and vanilla. Add dry ingredients and mix well. This is an easy batter so I stir this by hand in a large mixing bowl. When well mixed, pour into two well greased loaf pans. Bake at 325* for one hour.
You can add chopped nuts to this recipe if you have nut eaters in your home. My grandchildren love this recipe but prefer it nutless! You can also split this into three loaf pans and decrease cook time. This allows the center to bake completely without overcooking the sides.
