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Osondu Anyalechi
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I always wonder why the Lord Jesus, Who knew no sin, should be made sin on our behalf. Why should He die for us? I do not forget to appreciate God, particularly during the Holy Communion, realising what it cost Him to provide the bread and the wine. Uncle Paul asked the Corinthian Church: “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?”
As the last born and the only male child of my family, I understood quite at an early age, what it meant by preferring one another. I knew that my mother preferred me to herself. Each time malaria or any fever attacked me, she would wrap me with her body, pleading with the sickness to leave me and attack her rather. She went also the extra mile of forcing all our household members to be doing the same. Imagine!
In one of the folklores, we were told how the animals and birds were going for a party in the sky one day, and the tortoise, in his tricky manner, suggested that each of them should choose a name he would bear during the party. They agreed with him, and chose names, not knowing what he hid upstairs. Each time the hosts served them any type of food and said, “It’s for all of you”, he would tell his fellow party members that it was served exclusively to him. At the end, none of them ate any food while he fed sumptuously. The bird that loaned him his feathers to fly when they were going for the party demanded them from him. All the other birds flew back home, leaving him behind. To make it home, without feathers, he fell from the sky and his shell broke into pieces. All tortoises today are still suffering from his broken shell, a worthy dividend for selfishness!
I was always delighted, in those days, watching my local birds in the farm, moving about in search of food. When they were successful, the mother birds would not eat until her younger ones had eaten. Preferring one another! Most mothers are like that, not eating food when her children have not eaten. Most fathers may remember that they have children after eating. If a child needs a kidney, a mother is sure to offer hers first. That could be the reason why it is the mother, and hardly the father, that the children always invite to the US, Canada, Britain, et cetera, for ‘Omugwo’.
In 1956, immediately after my primary school, I was the oldest person living with my master. One night, I noticed that our soup was small and would not go round. I served him food, his two young daughters and my fellow houseboys. I did not eat. If it were today, I would have found something else to eat. In those days, the menu was simple: fufu three times a day, yams on Saturday mornings, while rice was about three or four times in the year. Pretending that I had eaten, I went and thanked him, not knowing that his daughters had spilled the beans, informing him that I did not eat. I paid for that personal sacrifice – preferring others to myself? He gave me some strokes of cane!
It is a different story with pigs. If you throw any number of food items into their pen, it is only the mother pig that will eat them all. It is only when it is tired that it will lie down and the babies will suck its milk or eat any leftover food! Some pigs may not allow their babies to suck their milk. If a school teacher wants to teach his students what selfishness means, the best place to take them is a pig farm. Every pig seeks its comfort first. A pig can deliver many sows and will eat them all, especially, if it was not fed. Selfishness!
Preferring one another is an example the Lord Jesus left for us, so that we will follow in His steps. Paul told the Church in Rome, “In honour, preferring one another,” Rom. 12:10. We are not pigs but people made in God’s image. The two men above did this before Pastor Igwe went to Heaven. It was God that prevented his partner from following him.
David and Jonathan did the same. Jonathan, the heir apparent, stripped his royal robe he was wearing and gave it to David, the youth, most envied and hated by King Saul, his father. He gave him also his sword, bow and girdle. The king nearly killed him because of his love for David, and was angry that he preferred him to himself and so long as David lived, he would not be the king. It did not change anything. They remained glued to each other until Jonathan’s death.
When God joins a man and a woman in marriage, He expects them to be one. In most cases, it is not so. They behave as if joining them was a punishment by Him. Each of them is interested only in the things that concern his or her family. This is most unfortunate. We thank God that there are couples, who honour God in their marriage, each, preferring the other in every aspect of their lives and in their marriage. During the ‘Odd and Even’ numbers in Lagos, I allowed my wife to be driving our two cars, when going to work, while I would be going by public transportation. I did not feel it. It even gave me the opportunity of sharing God’s Word inside the bus. I had a Christian neighbour, who was rather riding their two cars. I will even like to die before my wife, after all, I am quite older and for sure, she will run the family better. If it were the other way, I will not run the family better and the temptation for me to remarry will be rife.
Some spouses sacrifice their personal needs for the needs of their partners. I like fufu, my wife, in the past, would not stand close to it, but when through her mother, she knew that I enjoy it, it has become a regular food in our house for me. She does not pinch her nose when she is preparing it. The beauty of it all is that she harvests cassava tubers in our farm for its fermentation and preparation. Preferring one another!
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