Table

"Let Us Gather At The Table, and Bow In Family Prayer. To Thank Our Heavenly Father For The Blessings We All Share."

  The table is an icon of thanksgiving, fellowship, discussion, and prayer. My table has been large, small, lonely, and bursting with activity.  It has been the prop around which change has been introduced and formulated. We gathered around the table to tell my parents we were getting married. Plans to move were announced emotionally to the children around the table. New members of the clan have been introduced there. I have sat relaxed and well satisfied, tense and anguishing, and so excited that I was bursting. All different times and all different circumstances. 
   Jesus gathered with others around a table. He cryptically announced change and betrayal around the table. A table is just more intimate. 

   Luke 22:19 "And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you."

Had I been at that table I would have felt my heart beat a little faster. I would have  wondered what the new testament was. I would have remembered the smell of the room, the dishes in front of me and the look in his eyes. I would have remembered.

And, yet I come to a similar table every sabbath day. I come to remember how he gave his body and shed his blood. I come to promise to keep his commandments. I have promised before but I come to promise again so that I might partake of the gift of having his spirit to be with me at all tables, in all circumstances, and in all my interchanges with others.

I come to remember.

  I write on Fridays with a large group who inspire me. Only five minutes and without much thought to perfection. I write, prompted by one word that sends my thoughts to the keyboard and hopefully make sense.