By ENUMA CHIGBO
I recall laughing about something I heard a while back. This was during my Johannesburg days when a colleague had a go at some of the directors. “They simply run around like headless chickens!” Indeed they did. For people who were supposedly in charge, at best of times, they were totally clueless.
However, in more recent times, I had cause to reflect on the phrase ‘headless chicken’ a tad bit more seriously. Try cutting the head of a chicken or any live animal for that matter. To see its highly intense struggle for life before the final blow must be one of the most gruesome and traumatic sights ever. Never mind that this same sight was somewhat of thrill when I was much, much, younger. Indeed we mere mortals can be perverted sometimes!
Anyway, I am going somewhere with this and will drive the point home in my usual roundabout manner. In this place, the scripture in the book of Ephesians comes to mind. “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husband, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and He is the Saviour of the body.” (Ephesians 5:22-23)
Now, what does one have to do with the other? Permit me if you will, to bring the headless chicken issue here. But first, bearing the earlier mentioned scripture in mind, let’s look at the church. Picture the church without Christ as the head. And while I leave you to ponder on that, let’s move up one notch. Picture the wife without a head. Imagine the head being yanked off suddenly and abruptly. I don’t know about you, but the headless chicken does come strongly to mind.
I would remember this in learning about the story of a very special woman. Through her story, I would learn about the journey of widowhood. “I want to write a book,” she said to me and therein marked the birth pangs of A Very Different Journey, an e-book, written by Christine T. In helping her put this book together, my eyes would take on a different kind lens, a sharper and definitely more sensitive one – sensitive to the plight of widowhood.
I was totally enthralled by the story of a woman whose husband was taken away just like that. While her physical head was still atop her body, in the realm of the spirit, she was suddenly thrust into a different world, a world similar to that of the headless chicken. In view of this, I am very much appreciative of His word in the book of James.
“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this. To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” (James1:27)
Indeed, the journey of widowhood is a very different one. In marriage, the chain of submission of a wife is to her husband as to the Lord. When her husband is no longer in the picture, that entire chain becomes extremely distorted. Again, I draw another analogy here. For bicycle riders, picture the chain of the bicycle suddenly coming of position and its effect on the bicycle as well as the rider. To have one’s life change so drastically, opening doors to vulnerability at colossal levels is something that makes me shudder deep within. For this reason, I am more than thankful for His word in the book James. Indeed, He becomes the head for this very vulnerable group, shielding them from the world of the headless chicken, and encourages us to do our part in alleviating the plight of this special group of people.
So, with this in view, I very much encourage you to read Christie T’s story and support her by buying her book. May the Good Lord bless you as you do.
•Source: Facebook
