Passover Meal

Today I went to our Relief Society weekly scripture study group. I haven't been attending regularly cause of unwilling/difficult kids, but I made the extra effort to go (aka I bribed Natalie with candy) so that I could participate in a Passover feast that one of my lovely sisters had prepared, in celebration of it being Easter week.

For the meal, she had prepared lamb burgers, bitter herbs (romaine and horseradish) and a little bit of a cucumber yogurt dish for fun. Dates with cream cheese and dark chocolate bark with Almonds also provided for the movie snack to eat during a video that she wanted to share. I didn't finish watching the video though, cause I took what I thought would be a quick break to go check on Daniel and Owen.  I found them in the "drunk tank" but unfortunately I wasn't there this time when they entered the toddler arena to move the rock salt, therefore Owen had almost emptied the ice melt bucket and thrown the salt all around that glass contained little room. So then I spent 20 minutes sweeping it up while Daniel shrieked for me at the top of his lungs... and then I had to go home to be there when Sophi got home from kindgertarten... Anyway, I'm not here to share that story, but I didn't watch the film or hear too much of the discussion, but I did get to participate in the passover meal. And I wanted to talk about lamb.

You might know that last summer began to learn about and have since aspired to eat a whole food plant based diet. So I've pretty much cut out all meat (had shrimp a few times on date nights) but even before that when I did eat the normal American "meat and sweet" diet, I don't think I'd ever eaten lamb. But, I did have a bite today. I wanted to eat what the Savior ate during Passover. This was a meal the people of Israel were commanded to prepare and eat (Exodus 12:3-10) and they were supposed to eat all of the lamb (verse 10) as "a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever." (verse 14) So I took a piece of lamb burger, and I took a bite. And my thoughts turned to the little lamb that used to be alive. 

Before we ate, we learned about the Passover. A good site here on the prophetic significance of the passover lamb. Each family was to select a lamb and keep the lamb for four days before sacrifice, to grow attached to it, so that it would feel hard and feel like a sacrifice when they took it to the altar. Being mindful is important - here's a video of a guy who raises sheep/lamb for meat. I like his view at 5:30 - if you eat your meat blindly, not wanting to think that it was an animal or where it came from, that is irresponsible. I was mindful that this was a lamb, and as he says, if that's hard for to stomach, maybe you shouldn't eat it. Yeah, for me the meat was a bit much. My taste buds aren't used to eating meat anymore, and I'm really starting to not even like the smell of cooked flesh. After a bite, I wasn't sure I could finish it, sorry Exodus. Luckily Natalie came into the room "Can I have that?" Yes sweetie, thank you

I thought of how most of us are like children, eager and hungry for the food and sustenance that God gives us every day - life, breath, food, sight, taste - and we often take it all for granted, like little children do. We are little children, often only thinking of our immediate gratification and not noticing or understanding the love shown or the sacrifice involved in the gifts we receive.

The Lamb of God. I've continued to think of little lambs today. To think of the connection between God and his only begotten son. His son - an innocent and pure lamb. Little lambs, who want to be with their mothers, as shown in the film Peaceable Kingdom (from 15:00 - 17:30) the connection between the lambs and their mothers. This picture of a lamb, being marked for slaughter, the mother's calling for their lambs, the lambs not knowing what to do or how to do it, yet one trying desperately to get back to his mother.

Photo from Lamb Sanctuary.

One last video - little goats at 4:06, 4:44 - sheep being slain, 5:00 - other sheep, probably noticing what is going on, but no way to escape. That one made me cry. I usually feel sad and sorry about it, but I haven't cried before, mostly because I was thinking of the Savior, he is the lamb of God. I'm that although he knew the sacrificial cause before him and the cause for which he came into the world, he was still willing to go as a lamb to the slaughter. I thank him for his willing sacrifice. I maybe would have tried to stop him from doing it, just as if I were a Jewish child, grown attached to our family lamb, I might have wished we wouldn't have to go through the sacrifice for the Passover meal. But God be praised, he did go through with it. He is the lamb, given not just for a meal, but for our eternal life. His sacrifice was the only way for us to return.

I am grateful to tears for the Lamb of God, innocent and pure, willing to be sacrificed for us, that we might live again.