You know those days when you work and work and work to provide something really good for your family,…
…and there’s just very limited appreciation.
All right, Let’s face it…
…there’s NO appreciation???
Normally, we are a pasta three to five times a week family: pasta with sauce, boxed macaroni and cheese with processed orange powder stuff I won’t try to identify, and maybe pasta with shredded mozzarella from a bag thrown on top when we want to go gourmet.
You get the idea.
Pasta – it’s cheap – it’s easy – it’s quick.
Perfect for our lifestyle.
But not too long ago, I was shopping and found leg of lamb on a super sale. I’d never cooked leg of lamb before, but I figured, why not?
I made leg of lamb with sauce, roasted potatoes, and green beans, and, I expected the boys to be appreciative.
The lamb came out fine, but it didn’t go over well with the boys.
Noah told Kaleb the protruding bone was a piece of the eye which creeped Kaleb out. I told Kaleb that it was LEG of lamb and legs don’t have eyes, but that didn’t stop him from pushing his plate back and refusing to eat.
I refused to be dismayed and sliced into the succulent meat. Blood poured out onto the serving tray causing a mix of delighted gory shrieks from some of my children and grossed out “I’m-not-eating-THAT!!!” from others and even a “Ummm….mom isn’t that supposed to be cooked more? Are you trying to kill us?” from one.
And the rest of them meal was pretty much downhill thanks to five boys and a discussion of the bloody lamb’s leg.
Until finally, Troy looked me in the eye and said,
“Mom, why don’t you just make something good – like pasta?”
I’m trying to remember if I answered him verbally or just shot him a look of death from across the table,
but the other boys laughed and we got up to leave for Boy Scouts shortly after.
As I cleared the table later that night, however, I was thinking of how hard I’d worked to provide a nice meal for the boys. Maybe the lamb wasn’t exactly gourmet, but it had to be better than a $0.75 box full of processed powder mac and cheese, and, while I laughed with my boys about wanting, “something good like pasta,”
I began thinking about the meal the Lord has prepared for us,
the Lamb He has given to us
And of how often I tell the Lord I’d rather have something good
…like a new job,
…like a high salary,
…like a new outfit, a car, a house,
…like a husband, like a child, like a family,
…like pasta.
Pasta that is cheep and easy and quick – a perfect match for today’s lifestyle.
But look at what God has prepared for us.
God didn’t just prepare for us the leg of lamb. He prepared for us The Lamb – all of it, holding nothing back; He gave us Jesus the Lamb of God.
And God didn’t prepare His Lamb for us because it was on sale or because He’d never prepared a meal before or because He just figured why not?
God prepared for us and sent to us His one and only Son, the Lamb because He Loves us and wants the best for us
even knowing we would not appreciate the Meal He had prepared.
Why, when Our Lord Jesus Christ gave of Himself during the Last Supper and still feeds us through the Eucharist, do we continue to ask for pasta and then become disappointed, feeling bloated and overfull but still lacking in some way even when it is delivered?
Dear Lord, Please give me something Good. Help me to wait patiently by pushing back life’s pasta and settling for nothing less than Your Lamb. ~ Amen
God Bless…
