Luke 24: 5 (NRSV) “The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men[c] said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here but has risen.”
The Resurrection
In the spring of the year, our old sows would have their pigs. We had four in all. They never lacked any attention, especially at farrowing time. Dad let all of us kids watch the miracle of birth. Sometimes one of the sows would get a little upset, but we tried to be as still and quiet as possible.
I can recall one year in particular, because all the sows had their pigs on the same day, forty in all. Out of the four litters of pigs there were four runts, all litters have runts. The oldest sow had the ugliest runt or maybe I ought to say cutest. This runt was a female. She was solid white with a black band across the eyes, kind of like a raccoon. It was so small; you would have sworn it was a rat. All of us kids decided we were going to name this runt. So we got together and came up with the name Bo-she. After the second day, Bo-she didn’t look like she was going to make it.
My baby sister and I got a good idea, we were going to bottle feed that ugly little runt. We first had to talk Dad into it. After a long discussion, Dad gave us our responsibilities. He agreed to let us raise the little pig only if we realized that Bo-she might die at any time. School was out, so the night feedings were rotated between my sister and me. The runt gained strength. In a couple of weeks we were not able to keep Bo-she in her box. Bo-she ran around the house like she owned it, getting into everything. We would play house just like all children do, except we had a real baby, baby Bo-she. She would ride in her carriage having such a good time. Bo-she had her own clothes. Mom even made her a bonnet of her very own. The whole family loved Bo-she even Mom and Dad.
As the spring days grew warmer, Bo-she got more and more to eat. Since we had no refrigerator she got the buttermilk after we churned the butter. One day Mom got an extra order for butter so we had to churn all our milk. Well, we didn’t have anywhere to put the extra buttermilk so Bo-she got it all. She drank, and drank, and drank until she had completely finished a gallon of buttermilk. After an hour or two Bo-she killed over dead. We cried and cried, even Mom and Dad. We knew she was dead.
With all the crying going on I decided that this would be a good time for a funeral. So, with tears in my eyes, I went out behind the barn and dug a shallow pit grave. All the family walked mourning to the grave side for the last rites. Bo-she was carried by my baby sister who was kissing her dead baby. As she came to the grave side she dropped Bo-she in on the hard clay, Bo-she burped up all the buttermilk and ran toward the house beating us all home, dramatically ending the funeral.
That fall Sis and I entered Bo-she in the county fair. We won first prize, our first and our last. She later became Dad’s finest brood sow dying of old age.
CJ Cobb is pastor of First Christian Church in downtown Jasper. The church will hold its final service on Saunday, April 16, at 11 a.m.
