gather 'round the table

One week before Thanksgiving I got an email from "Neighbor's Table" telling me that they would be delivering tables to the southeast region of the states...would I like one?  I had been wanting a big farmhouse style table for several years now, and had inquired about one when we first moved here.  However, the timing wasn't right.  And Pete said he would build me one.  Two plus years later and I read the email with a glimmer of excitement.  "Pete, what do you think?..."  He could see my excitement and this time he agreed to the idea.  But I wasn't sure if there was still time...I hadn't responded to the email immediately and several days had passed.  Would it still be possible to get a table?  I tried not to get my hopes up too much.  But within 24 hours of my first email I heard back that a table would be loaded onto the truck from Dallas, Texas and I would be the final stop on Wednesday night (the day before Thanksgiving).  Sarah (the one behind Neighbor's Table, and also the one to deliver my table) wondered if I'd like to put together a dinner party for Wednesday night...and she would love to stick around and eat with us.  A dinner party the night before Thanksgiving?!!  Pete and I decided it would be worth the chaos and stress of fixing another meal...a way to celebrate the arrival of my table.  And not just any table...a table that held meaning for me.  You see, I have come to see that one thing I have done whether living in Kentucky, Laos, Chiang Mai, or Florida is have people sit around my table and eat.  I love to bring people together.  I love connecting people, and to welcome people around the table.  Whether it's a birthday party or a holiday or just a weekend evening gathering, I love to share my home and life with my friends.  It's one way that I feel I can love others, and build community/relationships with others.  It's a great way to introduce people to each other and help them leave feeling like friends.  And Neighbor's Table is exactly this: a love mission.  The vision behind the table is gathering people, and loving people.  My heart says YES, YES, YES!!  And so I was super excited about the arrival of my table.  It was not "just a table".  It was a vision of sharing love, resources, space, stories, friendship, around food...around a table.  In the midst of a time when politics seem to be causing division, when we hear of fear and hatred, when we begin to feel despair over the condition of our country...I feel that I can offer my table as a place to bring people together.  To live out the Kingdom of God...a place where all are welcome.  None are turned away.  The invitation is open.  The invitation is love.  And no one leaves the table empty.  May my table be a place where many gather, and where our stories are shared, and where love grows.  Amen.

ready or not

Ready or not, here I come!! Words from our favorite game of hide and seek.  And true now as Christmas approaches.  IT's coming whether we are ready or not.  How are you making yourself ready for the holiday?  It's easy to get swept up into the commercialism side of Christmas...my boys have been telling me what they want for Christmas since Halloween (it seems).  And I've been annoyed to be honest.  I wish they didn't assume Christmas meant they could ask for the most expensive and longed for thing that they've laid eyes on since last Christmas.  I wish they were into the deeper meaning of the holiday...reflecting on the birth of Jesus, and what an amazing gift this little baby was to all of us.  BUT...they ARE CHILDREN!  So Lord, have mercy.  I will be buying my boys presents...
But seriously, we all have associations with Christmas that are not all "spiritual".  And I think that's okay.  It's a time of gathering with friends and/or family to share warmth, listen to Christmas songs, put up the tree and be enamored by the lights, drink hot mulled cider or hot chocolate, and do nice things for others.  These are good things.  These are even holy things.  I don't really like to separate what is "spiritual" and what is not.  I think it is all sacred and wonderful as we lean into each other, lean into God, lean into the empty spaces that we feel the rest of the year.  We long for community, deeper relationships, closeness.  And this is the time of the year that we feel freer to exhibit these emotions of delight, laughter, joy, even a childlikeness as we touch the ornaments and remember years past when we put these same ornaments up on our trees.  Christmas brings back memories.   Memories of childhood.  Memories of the birth of our first child.
I am not ignorant to believe that all the memories are good, or that all of you reading this have good associations with Christmas.  Perhaps some of you have closed your heart because Christmas carries with it bad memories.  Or maybe you felt disappointment with it as a child when the presents you wanted were never under the tree.  Maybe you don't see any reason to get joyous this Christmas season.  That's ok.
But that is where the simplicity of the first "Christmas" (I realize it wasn't really called Christmas y'all...) causes me to pause in awe.  A woman carrying a child that she had not been dreaming about before she got news that she was pregnant (she was just planning to get married!)...a woman who really wasn't "special" by any earthly means.  A woman who was not known by many.  In fact, when she and her husband came to Bethlehem on a donkey, no one was laying out the red carpet to welcome her in.  Nope.  She was told "sorry, there's no room here.  Move on." and probably she heard lots of annoyed sighs, mumbled phrases behind her back, or even doors closed.  She and her husband were nothing special.  They kept moving along, even with a very swollen belly that made moving along a slow laborious task.  But they knew they needed to find somewhere to lay their heads and welcome this little child into the not very welcoming world.  A world that needed hope.  A world that was in need of love.  A world full of fear.  And so they kept searching for a place that would be their place to give birth and life.  And finally, someone said "Yes, I have a small simple place for you.  IT's nothing much, but you can use it..."  And with no other choice, this simple woman and man entered into a humble place to give birth to a little child who was coming to bring hope and light to a world full of despair and darkness.
Does our world not feel similar even now?  In light of all the hatred and fear that we hear rumblings of on the news.  Does it not feel that we, too, are longing for hope and light and healing?  Are we not quite similar to the condition of the world then, when a little child was born?  And so I look around and wonder how I might make room for life and love and hope to spring up in my home.  Can I make room for people to gather around our table?  Is there room here for a little one to show us the way to heal and have hope?  Yes, Lord Jesus, we welcome you here.  We need one who can help us.  There is so much fear and hatred and hurt and pain in the world we live in.  Sometimes it feels like we have no way forward.  Sometimes it feels like there's nothing that will change it.  But we make room for you. We make room for hope, and light, and the birth of a little baby who came to show us another way.  Come, Emmanuel, come.

colors of autumn

breaking the silence

It's easy to not post anything here because I often get stuck between "great thoughts in my head" and actually sitting down to type these great thoughts.  And then those "great thoughts" disappear.  So instead of waiting for those great thoughts to return, I'll just write something to break the silence.  Just because.  Sometimes I get caught up in trying to say something "great".  And then my posting stops because sometimes I just have things to say...are they great or not?  There's a lot of felt pressure to write cool things, funny things, wise things...but why not take the pressure off and just write?  I've been asking myself this lately.  So...here I am just writing.  Just being myself.  Or at least trying.  And so I am going to stop as quickly as I started because if I keep going, I will start trying to be "great".  Sometimes it's nice to just be.  And let that being be enough.  The end.