Bathed in Grace

For an upcoming brunch/facilitation, I wanted to serve pretzels to bring to life a story that Auntie Anne (founder Anne Beiler) wrote about in her book Twist of Faith.  As the story goes, in the beginning, Anne was having difficulty with her pretzels. In her words, “The pretzels proved to be a riddle I could not answer. They were, quite simply, horrible.” She tried everything and finally gave up, intending to take them off the menu. But her husband Jonas stepped up. “Let me try,” he said.

Auntie Anne wrote, “Jonas’ pretzels came out, and we tore into them like a bunch of vultures. We couldn’t contain our amazement!” When asked what he did to make the pretzels so delicious, Jonas answered, “I put love into them.” So this is why I wanted to serve pretzels for a group that would be learning that the energy we put into something either rewards or disappoints us. “And the greatest of these is love.”

A Google search told me there was an Auntie Anne’s in the mall in Flagstaff—a 2-hour round trip that I preferred not to make but would if there were no other option. I decided to check with the new village bakery. But before I could do that, I spoke with a friend about my dilemma. She had just experienced—are you ready for this?—a pretzel-making class, donated to a charity by Don and Jean Care. She said, “I’ll call them and see if they have any pretzels left over.” What they had was a batch he was baking TODAY, which he wants to donate to the brunch in my home. He wouldn’t take any money for his pretzels, but he asked me to make a donation to the charity.

Make of this what you will. I call it being bathed in grace.