Gather Around The Table

Where were your best family memories made? I’d be willing to bet that a fair number of them were made around a table. Mine sure were.

Gathering around the table is a concept that transcends culture, time, and socioeconomic status. Honestly, for me, whether it was a restaurant table (and lots of them were) or the table in Mama’s kitchen, my grandmother’s table, or my family dining table after I was married – so MANY of my favorite memories of people I love were made around a table. We often discuss beliefs, future endeavors, current events, the past, life, and death at the table.  We tell jokes at the table.  Young people might even fall in love at the table (perhaps on a dinner date). Old folks pass down stories and family history at the table.

What is it about a table that promotes interaction? Is it because we are eating and drinking and satisfying our physical body with food at the same time we are satisfying our need for relationship? (Because the Lord built us for relationship, y’all.) The table is a place of acceptance and welcoming.  People laugh and talk and say things around a table that they wouldn’t always say in another setting. And I think the propensity for empathy and understanding is magnified as well. In the moment, when you are sitting face to face with somebody just talking, silence can be awkward. You don’t have much time to think or process the conversation. But around a TABLE, you are eating and drinking, and moments of silence are not just okay, they are necessary.

Most holidays, whether they be religious or national, are centered around a meal or a table. Birthdays are celebrated with cake and ice cream, usually at a table. In many families after a funeral, the family and loved ones gather at a church, or restaurant, or somebody’s home for a meal together. My family’s yearly reunions boast of food stretched across several picnic tables placed end to end. Folks often host dinner parties in their homes. One of my favorite things to do, is to meet a friend for lunch and monopolize an obscure booth in the back of a restaurant while we enjoy good company and catch up on each other’s lives. People love to eat and visit at church, too. I saw something the other day that said the requirements to be a Baptist were that you had to love Jesus and own a 9×13 casserole dish! (And in my experience, this could be true!) I belong to a non-denominational church now, and we have potlucks once a month! People from every culture and walk of life love to enjoy each other gathered around a table!

When I moved out of my parent’s house, one of the first pieces of “adult” furniture I bought was a big old pine harvest table. Which, admittedly, was a slightly crazy purchase since, at the time, I was young and single. I lived with the best roomie a girl could have – my big, lazy, wonderful, black Labrador retriever. And while she liked laying UNDER the table, when it came to mealtime she was way more impressed with the TV tray situation that went on at the couch. (What can I say? We both liked to watch Murder She Wrote and eat my dinner.) The table didn’t get much use. But I LOVED it. Every time I passed it, I had these wonderful thoughts of people sitting all around it enjoying a meal, laughing, and talking. It made me smile.

I can’t help but think that God likes tables too. Do you know how many times the word “table” is mentioned in the Bible? 177 times in the KJV. Granted, some of those aren’t in the same context we are discussing, but still… The Word has a lot to say about tables. For example, the table of the last supper where Jesus spoke to the disciples before His arrest and crucifixion. The table at Simon’s house when the woman anointed the feet of Jesus and washed them with her hair (Luke 7:36-39). The table where Jesus was visiting Lazarus, Mary, and Martha and sharing a meal. In Psalm 23, where God prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies. In the book of Ruth (Ruth 2:14),  Boaz tells Ruth to go sit at the table and eat with the harvesters (nobody wants to be the kid eating alone in the lunchroom). In the story of the prodigal son, the father celebrated the son’s return with a meal, a feast! People came to the table and celebrated. You know, when Jesus joined sinners and thieves around a table for a meal, by the end of the meal they were transformed!

The Word says that one day Believers will meet in heaven for the marriage supper of the Lamb! A wedding CELEBRATION, y’all! And WE ARE THE BRIDE! Can you imagine? Oh, what a party that will be! We are going to get to sit and enjoy a meal with all those folks that we are missing on earth. I will get to sit around the table with my Nanny and Papaw, the grandmother I never knew, my Mama’s sister who died in infancy – aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, loved ones. What could be better? Who will you sit with? Who knows, after we eat we may look up and see King David dancing before the Lord! Hallelujah!

Before the weekend is over you may end up around several different tables, with different groups of people. Enjoy the folks that God put around those tables with you. Love on ‘em. Pour into the people that need it. Encourage those who need to be lifted up. Listen to the people who are in need of an ear. Soak in the laughter, joy, and the fellowship. Realize the potential impact of the moment. Make memories with people you love.

Psalm 23:5 ESV    You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.