Slaying the Spotted Cow

The best part of moving out here to our little country neighborhood has been the neighbors! This is our third home together as a married couple and every time we have moved we have been blessed with the best people around us. In all honesty, I have to give my husband a lot of credit for this. I do love to meet people and maintain relationships with them, but I really don't enjoy INITIATING friendships. I've tried to analyze why and I think it comes down to me just not trusting people to get to know who I really am. My way of dealing with shyness is by excessive talking, however strange that seems. And sometimes in all my babbling, I just get stupid. My husband is always encouraging me to "cut up with people" to break the ice, but the truth is that I am by nature more thoughtful and serious and "cutting up" is something I am really bad at. I try, but I usually just end up saying something that comes out ENTIRELY differently than how I intended it.

Meeting Romero and Fidela was different. Their first language is Spanish, and though I studied Spanish for eight years in grade school and college, I am by no means fluent, so they expect me to say everything all wrong. We have become fast friends. Romero and Fidela are two of the most generous people I have ever met. At least one or two days a week, they INSIST on cooking for us! It used to make me feel so guilty, or lazy, but honestly, cooking is my least favorite domestic activity, so it is a treat I have learned to fully appreciate and enjoy. And growing up in Texas near the Mexican border, Fidela prepares meals that hearken back to my time there. She finds it hilarious that one of my favorite television programs as a kid was in Spanish.

Romero and Fidela have routinely helped us in other ways as well. He has mowed our lawn while we were away without us making any arrangements for such. She has had the kids over just to give me 30 minutes alone. Tonight, they gave us about $200-$300 worth of free meat. Romero has a friend with a farm and a pregnant cow who gave birth to a large calf this morning. The problem is that the mother was herself a runt. Apparently the birthing process broke her back (literally) and left her moaning in pain. The decision was made to put her down and the friend, in his own generosity, offered the meat free to Romero. Romero, though, was the one who had to do the deed and haul the meat home. This was no problem to him. He had been accustomed to "acquiring his own meat" back in Mexico years ago when he owned a restaurant.

I remember my father once bringing home some venison that was in pretty raw form when I was younger. So I wasn't expecting anything too neat, obviously. But I also was not expecting - NONE OF US WERE - for Romero to approach the patio table where we had thankfully finished dining, and fling a hairy hoofed leg upon it! Then another. And two more! He had dissected the whole cow into transportable parts before coming home, but he had to leave them as intact as possible to prevent spoiling on the way. Unfortunately the children came out of the house to play just as he was arriving, and they saw it all!

At first this began to bother me. I mean, even Fidela was looking a little queasy. But then I realized that handled properly, this could be a great object lesson. We have only DESCRIBED to our children before that a big purpose behind animal sacrifice in the Bible, was so that the people would be faced with a tangible reminder that another must die for us to live. It was a picture of the sacrifice to come. That the Lamb of God would be slain for us to live eternally. "Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin." (Hebrews 9:22) As the kids gasped and feigned choking, we reminded them of this. This was VERY real. Now they could actually see what they will later be eating, either directly or by way of a store bought replica. They will forever be much less likely to forget that each bite of food they are allowed to swallow is an explicit provision of God. And that provisions are not always pretty. We are so blessed in our society - maybe TOO blessed - not to be confronted with the ugliness of our food preparation. This was certainly my first time! But for centuries people prepared their own meat, and were reminded with each cut to be thankful. Most of us have lived our whole lives with a view of our meals that is so sanitized, we rush our prayers with an attitude of inconvenience, if not outright apathy. I realized that my children, though being disturbed for a moment, were being given a blessing too rare today in our world - a very vivid reminder of THE SACRIFICE we too often forget, ignore, and turn away from, because it just isn't very romantic. GOD HIMSELF, in the form of a man, the ONLY holy and righteous man to ever walk this Earth, shed His blood and gave HIS flesh to be torn. And He did so that we might partake of it - AND LIVE.