“A little leaven leavens the whole lump.”
With the Days of Unleavened Bread quickly approaching, I thought it would be fun to do a simple experiment to demonstrate how a little leaven can leaven the whole lump. My kids love anything hands on, especially when they can get their hands dirty!
We started off by reading the scripture in Galatians 5:9 and then reviewing what leaven represents during the Days of Unleavened Bread: sin. Then we got to work.
First, we grabbed two mixing bowls and labeled one “Leaven” and one “No Leaven.”
Then we put 3 cups of flour in each bowl, a dash of salt (in case you actually want to make something with the dough after- it’s not the Days of Unleavened Bread yet!), and 1 ½ cups of warm water.
We talked about how both bowls have exactly the same ingredients and look exactly the same!
Then we threw in a packet of fast rising yeast (leaven) into the bowl marked “Leaven.”
As we did this, we talked about what a small amount of leaven we were putting into the bowl compared to how much flour and other ingredients we had in there. It’s a small amount and the particles are tiny! We mixed up all of the ingredients and compared the bowls again, they still looked exactly the same!
We put a towel over each and set them aside to see what happens, and I sent the kids off to play for about an hour. I placed the “Leaven” bowl near the warm stove to speed up the process a bit.
An hour later, my kids were chomping at the bit to see what the two bowls looked like. When we uncovered them both, the bowl labeled “No Leaven” was exactly the same as how we left it and the bowl labeled “Leaven” had of course puffed up and was almost overflowing from the bowl. The kids were pretty excited and lots of loud exclamations of “woah!” filled the kitchen.
Then came the best part: how does this relate to sin in our lives? What happens when we let a little sin in? Even just a little can change everything. We talked about a few examples of how sin could make a big difference in our life- and as my seven year old pointed out, once you let a little in, it makes it easier to add more and more!
Bonus: we are making bread with our “Leaven” bowl today. We will have to eat it up quickly as the days rapidly approach.
Happy Deleavening!