I’ve made dinner thousands of times. I didn’t expect
anything to be any different or significantly profound on this particular day.
My knife was a little too dull, just like every other day. It
was the same worn-out cutting board that I have used countless times. The kids
were happily playing. The kitchen was relatively quiet. Ok, the fact that the
kids weren’t underfoot and the kitchen was quiet was unusual.
Each boneless skinless chicken breast was carefully removed
from its Styrofoam resting place and its plastic wrap blanket. Each one was
laid on the old cutting board and trimmed and prepared for dinner.
I find cooking to be meditative, as long as the children
aren’t under foot. As I prepared the meat I found myself reflecting on the
chicken in front of me.
Those are thoughts I usually try to avoid. The thought of
what I’m eating usually freaks me out and then I end up not eating it. I try
very hard to distract myself so that I don’t think about what I am doing when I
prepare dinner. The kids usually take care of that for me.
Vegetarianism is a temptation for me. It is only the warning
of Paul to Timothy (1 Timothy 4:1-5) that keeps me eating meat. That and the
fact that my body feels like it is falling apart when I don’t eat enough of it.
So I do eat it and serve it to my family, but usually as a side dish or
incorporated into a main dish.
As I trimmed the fat and cut the chicken I thought how awful
it was that an animal had to die so that my family and I could live. Its life
would sustain us for the evening. But by morning, it would start all over
again. Another animal would have to give its life for our continued sustenance.
As I was dwelling on the awfulness of this concept a new
thought struck me.
Just as an animal had to die so that my family and I could
live, Jesus Christ died so that I and my family might live eternally.
Shock and then amazement flooded me as I realized that an
entire sermon on the necessity of Christ’s death and atonement had been built
into how our bodies function.
Every day, we take into ourselves a reminder of our
dependence on our savior. Every day we prepare our meals, eat our food, and are
sustained by it so we have a daily reminder that through him we have life.
Now I’m not so freaked out by a chicken dinner. It gives me
a chance to reflect on my Savior and give thanks for what he has done for me.
