THE BACK AND THE NECK

When I was growing up as a mean little kid with my mom and dad and my brothers we came to table every night for supper (not dinner). Sometimes we had Fried Chicken and it was really tasty with mashed potatoes, gravy and vegetables. My mom would purchase a whole chicken, cut it up into pieces and fry it. You could smell it frying a half-mile away…(usually on Sunday).

Mom always ate the neck and the back pieces and said they were her favorite parts and gave all the rest to my dad and my brothers and me. She gnawed on these boney pieces of nothing while we ate the rest of the poor little bird. She always acted like she really liked it and preferred it. I must have been eight or nine years old before I could see through this sacrificial practice of my devoted mother. Maybe that’s why I still don’t like chicken very much. That was really a bummer deal on the chicken thing. Backs and Necks are good for nothing except as an opportunity to prefer others above oneself and to teach that to your children.

“Be devoted to one another with [authentic] brotherly affection [as members of one family], give preference to one another in honor.” (Book of Romans 12:10 Amplified Version)

“For who is greater, the one who reclines at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at the table? But I am among you as the one who serves.” Jesus