My husband was teaching the anatomy class about how fats affect the blood. After eating a meal with fat in it, the blood takes on a milky-white appearance. When a person is fasting, the blood is dark red.
After hearing this lovely bit of information the students were really grossed out. One of them concluded, “We should go on a fast”.
The rest of the class agreed--albeit a few reluctantly.
And so it was that the high school anatomy class decided to fast for twenty-four hours. They had a grand plan. First of all, they would stop eating around 7:00 on Wednesday night before church. Then they wouldn’t eat all day Thursday at school. They would all come to our house after school and try to keep themselves busy until 7:00 that night when they would break the fast together with soup and bread.
Thursday morning they all arrived at school with no lunches. Our wonderful first and second grade teacher unknowingly made this an especially difficult day for the anatomy class. The first and second graders are doing the pop-the-balloon surprise day for the month of March, and then they do whatever is inside the balloon. This day when they popped the balloon open it read, “Popcorn Day”. So, being the great teacher that she is, she had those cute little red and white square popcorn containers which she placed on each students’ desk. Then she popped pop corn, and the delicious smell wafted through the entire school. The anatomy class was already being tempted by ten in the morning.
They played ping-pong during the morning break so they weren’t tempted to snack. At lunch a few of them stayed inside and worked on school subjects while the others played a game of soccer outside.
They made it through the school day. After school they came to our house as planned. They played soccer out in the front yard. Next they went to the park and played ultimate frisbee. They came back and I showed them my new story cube game which did not impress them. They sat in the living room and talked about Esau selling his birthright for a bowl of pottage. I read them a funny letter I was writing which did not impress them. The two pianists each played a piece of classical music. I fed my vulture which did not impress them.
Finally 7:00 arrived and after prayer they ate. And ate. And ate. They had chicken noodle soup, red lentil stew like Esau, Mexican rice and meat, and lots of toasted bread. At least they liked my soups.
Next they had decided that for dessert we would all walk across town to the Dairy Queen and have a blizzard. One of the girls who wasn’t too excited about the whole thing had a huge sundae. She couldn’t finish it, so we all shared the last of it. Maybe it was the three big bowls of food she ate?
So, they did it. They fasted for twenty-four hours, learned more about how God made our amazing bodies, laughed together, made jokes about how hungry there were, and became closer friends.
It was good day.