Around the Table
Rebekah Harkins
There is just something special about a covered dish meal at church. People make their treasured recipes to bring and place on a long table with an array of countless casseroles. There are usually multiple tables filled to the brim and bursting with savory dishes as well as a dessert spread that could be a feast by itself. Some come back for seconds, some get a plate full of desserts, some sit around the table well after the meal just catching up, laughing or telling stories over the meal shared with others. It is a beautiful picture combining something we need to do to live, which is eating, with another thing we need to do to live, which is being in community with others. Sitting around the table across from each other is an intentional way of slowing down and communing together in fellowship and unity. How amazing it is when this happens regularly within our own homes and families!
Prioritizing ordinary family meals can begin the foundation for children and youth to understand community. This simple practice, whether at home or at a restaurant, whether breakfast, lunch, or supper, can open the door for conversation across the table. When time is taken to sit down and share a meal, that time can be used as a means of slowing down purposefully, seeing each other eye to eye, and talking about the day ahead or joys and struggles of your children. Use the time to stop and give thanks to the Lord for all he has provided in prayer. Use the time to ask questions or to read the Bible aloud together. Children witnessing the routine of the model of how a family works help to prepare them for their future with families of their own or welcoming in someone around their own table when they are adults. Because of busy schedules, it may seem impossible and overwhelming at first but as time allows, try to make meals together a goal that can grow. This mundane yet profound action of sitting around the table together is a restful place to land for children and youth and adults alike as a reminder to slow down and remember the Lord’s provision in the midst of a loud and fast moving world.
A big, covered dish meal or small meal around the table can be viewed as daily preparation for an even better future reality for us. The marriage supper of the Lamb will be a feast of victory that celebrates the marriage of Christ and the church and that Christ has conquered sin, death, and Satan. What joy we have as Christians! As we wait for Christ’s final return, we can celebrate and anticipate that great feast ahead. Rehearse these things with your children. Remind them in this action around the table that Jesus says, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Come to his table and receive the bread of life and never hunger again. Remember this joy from Revelation 19:9, “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.”