When was the last time you came to a restaurant that was full and the only table that they could offer was to share the other end of a large table where there was already another seated couple? You did not have the option of going somewhere else for lunch so you accepted.
One time the gentleman at the other end of the table cringed when we sat down. He was more than a little uncomfortable that there were strangers at the other end of the table. In another instance, the couple started making introductions and welcoming us into their city.
What a wonderful image to think about how our God actually works. We are invited to sit at the table with God, but God always keeps enlarging the table. More and more different people are invited to sit down with God and with us!
Always think of God’s table like the table of your grandmother. It did not matter how many people dropped by, she could always have them seated and could whip up a meal in a half hour. You probably remember when the kids were moved to a smaller table from the playroom. Another uncle and aunt had dropped by and Grandma could always find room. Squeeze a little bit more!
Here you are sitting at God’s table and he invites the two young men who live down the block from you, but they are heavy into the drugs. You never felt comfortable with then on earth. What are you supposed to do in heaven?
Then God shuffles the table and invites so many refugees and their children. All these displaced people are told to sit down. They may have had no territory to call home but here God makes space for all of them.
The table is getting a little crowded!
As they table is being filled up, how are you feeling?
This image shows us that God is a welcoming God. We humans may be very narrow in whom we consider to be acceptable but the heart and the embrace of God always grows larger.
Too many ‘born’ Christians have so much difficulty with the largeness of God. They only want to work with the people they feel are acceptable. Too often they have a strong desire for moral purity in whom they consider worthwhile.
Whether or not anyone pays attention to what God is doing, you can be assured that God will upset our way of judging and evaluating human beings. God’s ways are not to make human beings feel warm and secure. God’s ways are meant to stretch the human heart to love all people, especially those different from ourselves, with the same love that God has for them. God will always upset our apple cart!
Today would be a good time for you to imagine what it will be like when God brings you to sit at the table. Who will be seated around you?
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