Even at an early age we know how important it is to make a first
impression. The clothes we wear, the bike we ride, even the cartoons we watched
told more about us than we wanted some to know. But one important facet of
growing up was choosing your lunch box. My first one in kindergarten was just
for carrying a snack. It was a firehouse, with a round top that held the
thermos. All four sides portrayed a firehouse and firemen in action, even a
fire engine and the standard equipment Dalmation. I was cool, particularly next
to Chuckie on our first day, his was a girlish light blue with his name on it.
Even then you could see the competitive nature of us coming out, and the social
groups forming. Chuckie was well, a Chuckie, the firehouse was cool. No one
ever tried to borrow his lunch box...boys will be boys, not so sure about the
rest of you.
But in first grade my new lunch box had rockets on the moon. It as 1960,
and the Mercury program was just beginning, and outer space was cool. While
watching a rerun of Leave it to Beaver, there it was, my lunchbox, being carried
by Larry Mondello. I had a lunch box like Larry’s, and even if Larry was the
coolest, there was my choice on TV! Sure beat Beaver’s plaid lunch box, you
know he caught grief over that, and I can hear June whining to Ward, old man,
“why does he have to have a boys’ lunch box? He’ll just outgrow it...” And Ward
trying to help her figure out not everyone was a pain in the neck when it came
to be being cool like she was. I wonder if she ever realized that her sons
weren’t girls? Had someone played a cruel trick at birth? And how come you
never saw a show about girls growing up? But there it was, a lunch box like
Larry’s, and that $2.95 purchase some 55 years ago is now worth over $400
today. Take that June....
But by third grade we were no longer kids, and brown paper bags were it.
The uncool part was when your mother would write something cutesy under your
name on it, something like “have a good day,” or even worse “love you.” Yuck,
c’mon, we were 8 years old,almost men! Can’t you treat us like one? But
somehow no matter how old, or how many years later, you would always be her
little boy.
Lunchboxes reappeared when I got my first real job working for the Union
County Park Commission, and our boss Tony had the standard black lunch box with
the thermos in the round top. His thermos of coffee always next to him while
sitting on his tractor making us work. No matter he had such a hard time
staying awake. But that was what the workers carried then, the lunch bucket
brigade they were referred to, and someday we would have one too, just so you
could tell we were a boss. But for me it was always, and would always be the
brown bag. Disposable, the first throw away lunch box, and the forecasting of
recyclables was here. Or there. No one looked cool with a lunch box bungee
corded to their Honda, we would put up with squashed sandwiches just to look
cool. But last night after seeing Larry’s lunch box, I want one. If only I
could find one, and afford the $400, just to be cool like a kid that wasn’t, to
rekindle a time I don’t want to go back to, to eat a lunch I rather pass on
today. Maybe the past is best left in the past...but I sure would like another
firehouse lunchbox. I was always cooler than Larry!
Box lunches were popular at one time, and we see them offered for sale at
many resorts today. For hikes in the country, road trips, or times when you
don’t want to eat out, you can eat out of a box. Never as cool as the ones we
had in school, the cardboard even brags about being recycled. June Cleaver
still at work taking the fun out of lunches for boys.
What would we find in the lunchbox of a young Jesus of Nazareth 2000 years
ago? It may surprise you, as in those pre-June Cleaver days, they still ate
healthy. His lunch may have been carried in a burlap bag, with a portion of
salted fish, which made Mary Magdalene richer than her other well known social
business. It would come with assorted veggies, bitter herbs found in the
fields, reminding them of the Passover meal. Seasoned with berries, spices,
certain roots, and walnuts and persimmons, these pre-pepper meals had a flavor
all their own. Olives were included to munch on, as was various wheat picked
along the way for a snack. Bread was included, very basic, but fresh. Fruit
was included, figs the most popular, and readily picked. The annual first figs
of the season highly prized. He would have eaten persimmons, dates, quince,
pomegranate, and mulberry. All fresh, all healthy. With a jug of goat’s milk
to wash it down. Which helped make you sleepy, Mexico didn’t invent siestas!
And over the mid day meal imagine the discussions, and think about eating with
Jesus today, and the discussions you can have. For eating, meal time was and is
special to the Jews, and a time to sit and visit with the family. Something
society misses today, a special time to meet and eat with the family. To eat
what Mom has prepared, not what takes 4 minutes to microwave. To let the kids
tell of their day, to listen and instruct, to enjoy a tie together, a meal with
family. Maybe that is why communion is so special to Jesus, and should be to
us, a time to rest, eat, and be blessed. A time to spend with Jesus, thanking
him for what he has provided. A time to thank him for our families, our jobs,
school,and how he provides it each case for us. That somehow what is in the
lunchbox is more important than what it advertises. Yet I still want the
lunchbox, and what it tells the world about me, whereas Jesus wants us to tell
the world about him.
I ate many tuna fish sandwiches over the years, lots of crackers, potato
chips, and milk. Good lunches, eaten out of a lunch box or brown bag, with
school mates at our desks. A time we fellowshipped, a time away from teachers
and studies, where we prepped for recess. And how our eyes would light up when
we saw an extra Twinkie or Yodel. We felt blessed....and so we should feel
today. Jesus has packed a life for us filled with blessings, and it comes in
various boxes. Some pass over the plain ones, looking for glitz and glamour.
Some care more about the box than its contents, and some trade what is packed.
Some pass on lunch, some pass on Jesus. His offer is free everyday, lunch and
life is on him, in him. Today when eating, spend some time thanking him. Have
a communion time, not a religious ceremony, but eat with a friend. See what his
father packed for him today, and what he has for you. He traded everything just
to spend time with you, share lunch with him. But to be really cool, bring a
friend and share with them too. I can only imagine all the apple cores stored
in Larry’s lunchbox, I’ll bet there was never any left over food. Look into
Jesus today and see what he has in store for you. Don’t be afraid of a brown
bag, or a lunch box with flowers on it. Many good meals have been hidden so
that no one would steal them. Jesus has packed a special meal just for you, as
always it is what inside that counts the most. But I sure would like to have
that old firehouse lunchbox....see you on the playground after lunch.
love with compassion,
Mike
matthew25biker.blogspot.com