The Bible teaches that it’s possible to meet God in all sorts of unlikely places. Moses met God in a burning bush, Jacob met God in a desert while fleeing from his brother, and Jonah met God in the belly of a great fish, and now someone has met God on the Great British Bake Off.
This year’s winner of the show, Jasmine Mitchell, 23, told Premier Christian News about how her faith had grown as a result of the stresses of the competition.
Mitchell combined her appearance on the show with studying for a degree in medicine. She said that she only applied to be on the show on a “whim” following her friend’s encouragement.
She said her “faith has become stronger and stronger over the last year” due to her need to rely on God to face the challenges of studying while also producing award-winning cakes. Mitchell, who has alopecia, won the show with a record-breaking 1.2 metre “Alopecia Awareness Cake” shaped like a braid of hair.
The show, she said, “really pushed me to rely on Jesus, on God, because there were a lot of situations where I just felt completely unequipped”.
“Walking to the tent from the green room, or waiting, I would just pray the Lord’s prayer a lot in my head. It didn’t take away the stress, but I felt like God was walking along beside me with it … I would look back at the end of the week and just feel completely held by God.”
As well as praising God, Mitchell also gave thanks to her family and friends, particularly her mother, who she said had set an example in hospitality and inspired her to take up baking.
During her appearance on The Great British Bake Off, Mitchell would surreptitiously take trial runs of her creations to church.
Speaking of her experience of having alopecia, Mitchell said that as a teenager she would wear wigs out of a desire to fit in, but had come to terms with her condition in the last five years.
“Often, I would pray for my hair back, in a sense of: ‘This is what I want, this is what healing looks like to me.’ Ironically, healing isn’t just what we ask for. God has healed me to make me more whole, and more me. I’m now starting to enjoy being different and just going with that. It’s definitely a process of learning to see myself the way God sees me," she said.
