As a young boy, I remember that sometime around Thanksgiving my dad would reserve a day for killing and dressing a hog or two. I remember the weather was always cold. He would build a nice fire and would place a large barrel of water over it. After everything was ready he would kill the hog. We would all pitch in. Using the hot water and a sharp knife we would scrape all the hair off the hog. Then he would proceed to cut it up as a butcher would do. This is the way we were to have meat on the table for months to come.

After the butchering process was finished, the meat would be placed, in what we called, the smoke house. I never understood why it was called a smoke house because we never built a fire in it or there was never any smoke process done in it. But what did happen was that the hams, shoulders, and the rest of the meat that was to be salted would be laid on good clean shelves and a heavy dose of salt was applied. Of course, I didn’t know at the time why the salt was applied. Later, I learned the purpose of the salt was for preserving the meat, otherwise the meat would spoil and would be wasted.

Learning the purpose of the salt also helps me to understand a passage of scripture in the book of Matthew, chapter 5 verse 13, where Christ was teaching and said “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men”. As I understand this passage of scripture, I realize the parallel in this message. We, as children of God, have spiritual strength by abiding in the teaching of Christ. We are kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation, trusting in Christ and we are commissioned to lead others to Christ.

I’ve heard the old saying, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. Of course, if you really want him to drink, just feed him some salt. The same thing applies to those you want to lead to Christ. Just let them taste that spiritual salt the Lord has indwelled you with and most likely they will also want a drink of that spiritual water, which is Jesus the Christ. Jesus told the woman at the well if she would ask of Him, He would give her living water.

This little story is more about the benefit of salt than it is about hog killing. Natural salt or salt used in the manner as Jesus spoke is of great value but I’d rather have Jesus than all the cured ham in the world.

Taking our children to church and teaching them to live a life trusting in Christ is one of the greatest gifts you can give your family. I firmly believe that families that truly pray together stay together.