A Place at the Table

Daily Gratitude Year 7 - Day 72: Today, I am grateful for a place at the table.

Remember the first time you we invited to the "grown up" table? I grew up with a big extended family. The "kid table" is a real thing. 

Then, it happens. Overnight, you find yourself invited to the big table. It feels different. Fancy and more serious. (Some of us might secretly miss the kid table.) 

This quote struck me today:

"Don't settle for the crumbs of comparison when God has invited you to His table. -Lisa Bevere


"Come To The Table" by Sidewalk Prophets is one of those songs that always makes me take a deep breath and smile. Here is the first verse and chorus:

We all start on the outside
The outside looking in
This is where grace begins
We were hungry, we were thirsty
With nothing left to give
Oh the shape that we were in
Just when all hope seemed lostLove opened the door for us 

He said come to the table
Come join the sinners who have been redeemed
Take your place beside the Savior now
Sit down and be set free
Come to the table

Lent has begun and we find ourselves looking to the cross with fresh eyes, once again. It never gets old. We remember the supper, the suffering, the sacrifice and the sunrise on Sunday morning. 

The picture of "The Last Supper" always comes to mind. I once saw the famous painting reenacted in a play called "The Living Last Supper". It is amazing to see the actors frozen in place, looking like the famous painting, until it is there turn to tell their story and eventually ask Jesus which one would betray him. "Is it me? Is it me?" 

"Greatly distressed, each one asked in turn, “Am I the one?” -Mark 14:19"

It is the question they all wrestled with the night Jesus shares the passover supper with them. He offers them the bread and the wine in the form of a new covenant that he would seal with his body and blood in sacrifice. Which one of them would betray him and cost him His life? 

In truth, the answer is all of them... and all of us. Yes, Judas did his part, but we are all guilty of our own sins. Still, he invites us to the table. How humbling and profound. He calls us brothers and sisters... adopted... chosed... beloved.  He invites us to come to the table.

Today, I am grateful for a place at the table.