The Lamb
When we struggled financially, our greatest extravagance was to cook a leg
of lamb for Christmas dinner. We could imagine nothing more privileged than
to have such a meal in our frugal household and Christmas was made the more
special because of this one extravagance.
Everybody looked forward to Christmas dinner!
As our children grew up and moved away from home, they would try to be home
for Christmas dinner and their one insistence was that we have our
traditional leg of lamb. Forget all the tasty inventions and methods and
meals of modern cooking; forget the fancy things, the new tastes, the new
recipes, the new foods now so readily available. It was not Christmas
without baked leg of lamb complete with vegetables.
I had grown up on my father's farm and I knew what the slaying of a lamb
meant. It was always one of the hardest duties my father had to perform but
it was the only way to provide food for his family. Slaying the lamb
included suffering for him.
So Christmas always reminds me of the 'Lamb slain from the foundation of the
world', and the suffering it caused his Father. But it is the only way He
can provide food for His family to bring them to the table and provide
heaven for them.
This Christmas, as we celebrate family Christmas in our traditional way, I
shall whisper as we say grace around the table, 'Behold the Lamb of God who
takes away the sin of the world!' John 1:36.
May I include you in my whispered prayer?
By Just a Minute team writer
Elizabeth Price.
You can contact Elizabeth direct at mailto:reprice@dragnet.com.au