When I was a young farm boy, I went to a small school in our little town. When I say our town was little, I mean really small. The population was under 150 men, women and children combined. The population of the town cemetery was greater than the living population. Our little school didn’t have anything that resembled a cafeteria or even lunch room like they have these days. Each student brought lunch from home and ate it at his or her desk. Every day I carried the same meal in my blue button-down pouch that served as a lunch box.
Most of the time it contained the same thing: A homemade peanut butter sandwich on homemade bread, some homemade pickles, homemade corn chips (these were not like anything you see today), a mason jar with some kind of homemade soup and a piece of mom’s homemade pie or cookies.
Most of us in our school were pretty much in the same lunch boat since most of us came from local farms. There was one fellow however whose parents were what we all called “rich”. His name was Robbie Buckner and he sat to my right. He never brought a lunch box to school. At noon each day, his mother delivered him a hamburger from the one and only restaurant in town. If you hadn’t figured it out, in those days my family was relatively poor, although we never really thought of ourselves that way. If I was lucky to eat a hamburger at the restaurant only a couple of times a year, it was a real treat. Robbie ate them every day.
Each lunch period I was forced to smell his hamburger. I watched in agony as Robbie opened his mouth wide and chewed off a mouthful. I was tortured as I listened to him smack each bite, while I forced a peanut butter sandwich down my own throat.
Paul said, “I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’” I would not have known about coveting if it weren’t for Robbie Buckner’s hamburger.
In those days, most small schools like ours were still what I call Christian Based.I memorized the Ten Commandments in this Christian grade school. I could say the tenth by heart: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor” (Ex. 20:17).
With my head I learned not to covet, but with my heart I learned how to covet. I know that hamburgers aren’t mentioned in the off-limits list in the tenth commandment. I didn’t covet my neighbor’s house, wife, servants, ox, or donkey. But that last phrase did me in: “or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” Yep, that includes hamburgers.
And who is my neighbor? Anyone outside of me. Just something to ponder!
Most of the time it contained the same thing: A homemade peanut butter sandwich on homemade bread, some homemade pickles, homemade corn chips (these were not like anything you see today), a mason jar with some kind of homemade soup and a piece of mom’s homemade pie or cookies.
Most of us in our school were pretty much in the same lunch boat since most of us came from local farms. There was one fellow however whose parents were what we all called “rich”. His name was Robbie Buckner and he sat to my right. He never brought a lunch box to school. At noon each day, his mother delivered him a hamburger from the one and only restaurant in town. If you hadn’t figured it out, in those days my family was relatively poor, although we never really thought of ourselves that way. If I was lucky to eat a hamburger at the restaurant only a couple of times a year, it was a real treat. Robbie ate them every day.
Each lunch period I was forced to smell his hamburger. I watched in agony as Robbie opened his mouth wide and chewed off a mouthful. I was tortured as I listened to him smack each bite, while I forced a peanut butter sandwich down my own throat.
Paul said, “I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’” I would not have known about coveting if it weren’t for Robbie Buckner’s hamburger.
In those days, most small schools like ours were still what I call Christian Based.I memorized the Ten Commandments in this Christian grade school. I could say the tenth by heart: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor” (Ex. 20:17).
With my head I learned not to covet, but with my heart I learned how to covet. I know that hamburgers aren’t mentioned in the off-limits list in the tenth commandment. I didn’t covet my neighbor’s house, wife, servants, ox, or donkey. But that last phrase did me in: “or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” Yep, that includes hamburgers.
And who is my neighbor? Anyone outside of me. Just something to ponder!
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