Invitation to Our Seat at the Table

 

The kids’ table, have you ever been stuck there even though you knew you were long past that undesirable place? I was married, I even had the ring to prove it. I was childless and on Christmas vacation while my husband was away at work. I spent a lot of quality time with my family and his.

I found myself at my aunt and uncle’s house on Christmas Eve afternoon. We gathered to fellowship and share a meal. It was a stress-free environment and I had nothing to do. Smartphones weren’t time killers then and only sports were on the television. I set the tables. Unbeknownst to me, I was setting my place next to my child cousin, at the kids’ table.

My uncle, who I didn’t know very well because I had only met him a few times prior to this, decided to sit next to me on the very small chairs with elbows on the very wiggly card table. I don’t recall the food, or the music, or even the blessing. I recall the question posed by the man who shared our wiggly table.

“So, what year are you in school?” he asked.

“I start back this winter. I will be considered a senior with the amount of credits that I have, but it will be my junior year as far as my degree goes,” I replied thinking that I could have a nice conversation about school and a future career path.

“In high school?” he sounded surprised and I think my mouth hung a bit lower than it should have.

“Um, you were at my wedding,” I said in some sort of shocked whisper followed by a  nervous giggle.

What? Now I know I am not a popular gal or anything. I may leave a path of niceties behind me most of the time, but nothing overwhelmingly noteworthy.  However, I would like to think that someone who attended my wedding might remember the bride.

I guess this is what being an adult at the kids’ table gets you. A confusing conversation, jaw dropping moments and maybe a fork the fell on the floor. It all left for an impressionable evening.

Makes me wonder where I will be sitting when I am dining at the Lord’s wedding feast. Will I be at the kid table, or will I have the honored seat? Will God remember being at my own wedding, or will He think of me as still a child waiting to graduate into the new phase of spiritual life?

Am I invited to His table?

Do I see myself on God’s side, not in a battle or a dispute, but by His arm?  Do I walk next to Him or sit at His feet as He tells us a story?  Do I have the honored seat next to Him at a feast?

I am merely a person who is unworthy and inexcusable without the grace of the LORD that was demonstrated through the death of His Son.

I am rooted and established in His great love.  I was before my time and will be into eternity.  This love through Christ goes beyond all things.  We will be seated with the saints, His saints, which is mind-boggling and humbling all at once.

Me, whom I think so little of at times, am His Beloved Child.  He will not leave me behind.

Ephesians 3:14-21 is Paul’s prayer for Spiritual Strength and a reminder that God’s people are not left behind, but are strengthened through His love that is rooted and established. It says:

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

By reading this, we can remember the sacrifices of the many to spread the Good News.  We can all pray this prayer for strength and to be reminded to live for God and Christ.  We are reminded to hold on to the faith and spread it to the future generations, to our children and to their children.

Something to Remember and to Teach Your Children

Say this to yourself: I am a beloved child of God and I am rooted in His love. I am invited. I am called to spread the Word and only someone who is held dear would be given such a great responsibility. My seat on earth does not determine my place in the eternal kingdom. I am a child on the king, and that is place enough.

Deuteronomy 33:12 refers to God’s people as His beloved. “Let the beloved of the LORD rest secure in him, for he shields him all day long, and the one the LORD loves rests between his shoulders.”

You may not hear Him say your name, but because you are His, you are His Beloved.