Eating High on the Hog
Hello!
Today’s entry is the devotional for January 30, 2012, but I had so much fun writing it and remembering the “good old days” that I felt like sharing today. Take a trip down memory lane…
You are my portion, O LORD; I have said that I would keep Your words. (Psalm 119:57)
When I was a boy the meat you served at the table was an indication of how well you were doing financially. The hierarchy went something like this:
- Rich = steak (I was an adult before I realized that there is a hierarchy in the types of beef. I was thrilled to eat any type of beef. We even pretended that beef hotdogs were “tubed steak”
) - Next on the totem pole was pork. Pork meant that you were not rich, but that you were improving. (Fried Pork chops made me feel pretty rich!)
- Then there was chicken – that was what good honest, hard-working people put on the table most of the time.
- I won’t even get into spam, pork brains, and all the other “poor folk” food – through I’ve had (and enjoyed) my share of it.
So chicken (usually fried) was what most often greeted me as a boy when I pulled up to the table. Golden brown, rolled in egg and flour and dipped in hot Crisco (my mouth is watering now); there’s nothing like it.
But wait! Don’t go grabbing for a piece of that chicken just yet. There was also a clear hierarchy on eating chicken. The “white meat” (the chicken breast) went to the grownups (the guest of honor and the man of the house) and then the mother got the next choice and then the children (by age) got what was left. A child’s portion was – at best a thigh but most often the “drumstick” (Still finger licking good!) Even to this day when, as an adult, I pass up the chicken breast for a “lesser” piece of chicken I feel like I’m doing something noble.
Society has learned this lesson well. We have a hierarchy for almost everything. Whether it is cars or clothes, homes or honey – we are given the strong hint that we are a better person if we are able to get the better “portion”.
Let the psalmist help you today. Whether you’re eating steak or chicken and whether you’re eating filet mignon or the drumstick, if “the LORD is your portion” then you’ve got the best. As the old timers used to say, “You’re eating high on the hog.”
