The Cost Of A Meal
What Every Meal Reveals About a Fallen World
I posted this on a personal account this morning, but I felt compelled to share it on this platform.
Yesterday I loaded a group of meat birds and took them to our Amish butcher. As I drove, I couldn’t help but think about a simple truth that most of us spend our lives trying not to think about: something has to die so that something else may live. Those birds were raised to provide food for families. Their lives would sustain other lives. It is a reality woven into the very fabric of creation.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that this truth points beyond the farm, beyond the butcher shop, and beyond the dinner table. All through Scripture, life comes through sacrifice. A seed falls into the ground and dies before it bears fruit. The Passover lamb died so others might be spared. The sacrifices on the altar reminded Israel that sin carries a cost. Every one of them was pointing toward something greater.
Then came Christ.
Unlike the birds I delivered yesterday, Jesus was not an unwilling sacrifice. He willingly laid down His life. He was the spotless Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world. The cross stands as the greatest demonstration of a truth creation has been whispering since the beginning: life comes through death. Because He died, we can live. Because He shed His blood, we can be forgiven. Because He conquered the grave, death no longer has the final word.
So the next time you sit down to a meal, consider the cost behind it. Something gave its life so that yours could be sustained for another day. Then lift your eyes to Calvary and remember the One who gave His life not merely to sustain your body, but to save your soul. As Jesus said, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever” (John 6:51, KJV). In a world sustained by sacrifice, every meal is a reminder of the greatest sacrifice ever made—the Lamb of God who died so that we might truly live.
I wish every person had the opportunity to raise their own meat just one time. It gives you such a great appreciation for the sacrifice it takes to put food on the table and reminds you that life, in this fallen world, comes at a cost.
God bless you.
My prayer always is that I am thankful to the animal that gave its life so that I might eat and be sustained.
Excellent food for thought and I'm not being flippant. This is another reason to thank God for the food we eat and the sacrifice involved in taking an animal life for our own sustenance. Plus reminding all, as you point out, of the ultimate sacrifice Jesus made for us. By the way I was observing a Bumble Bee the other day as it gathered nectar and pollen. I thanked and praised God for it as I observed its fat furry body and seemingly lack of aerodynamic appearance and lack of speed. If evolution was true it would not exist. Proving that evolution is a lie! I've taken to using the name of Jesus to bless people after, I think, you and a guest (maybe Raul) mentioned it as a way of directing people to Jesus. So may Jesus bless you for all of your hard work.