And Still, There is Room
Table Talk
Setting the Table
You are welcome here. Come just as you are, bringing whatever is on your heart today. Take a few moments and allow yourself to just be. Take a couple deep breaths, grab yourself a cup of coffee, light a candle, do something that brings you comfort. Allow yourself to be present in this moment.
Consider what a gift it is to enter a space, take a seat at the table, gather with others, and find that there is more than enough room for you to be completely yourself.
There are times when wisdom cannot be found in the chambers of parliament or the halls of academia but at the unpretentious setting of the kitchen table.
― E.A. Bucchianeri
If the home is a body, the table is the heart, the beating center, the sustainer of life and health.
― Shauna Niequist
Luke 14:22-23
“And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.’ Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled.’”
Food for Thought
At the center of my family is a large, round, solid, oak table, with a scarred, worn surface. That table has quite a story — or I should say — many stories.
That table used to sit in my grandparents’ farm home where my grandfather retired after serving for many years as a pastor. Of course, pastors never really retire, so after he concluded his pastoral ministry he managed a Bible bookstore. On the floor of that bookstore, I began to read my first Bible, and then carried it home where I sat at the old oak table delving into many of its timeless stories.
We shared many meals around that table — good meals of freshly harvested garden vegetables from my grandfather’s garden, grapes from his vines, and bread from my grandmother’s oven. We shared many Thanksgivings there, and many Christmases, too.
Sometimes we would all fit quite nicely around that old oak table. Sometimes my grandmother would send my grandfather or our father running for an extra leaf while she would go back to the kitchen for more food. That table has a set of 5 large leaves, which were kept close by. There were always friends and neighbors, uncles and aunts, cousins and kinfolk, stopping by.
I can remember my grandfather saying, “There’s always room for one more.”
In the parable of the Great Banquet, one line has always jumped out at me: After the rich and the powerful have rejected the master's invitation, he sends his servant out to the “streets and lanes of the city”, the highways and the byways, and the servant returns saying, “Sir, what you have ordered has been done and still there is room.” (Luke 14:22) And so the master sends him out again.
I imagine that any table of God’s must hold far more people than my Grampy’s old oak table. And God would welcome anyone — and everyone — in.
God has set a grand table for us. All we need to do is accept the invitation and slide in next to one of the family.
When we come to God’s table, we come to a place where:
we are all accepted
and all invited to bring
all of who we are to the table -
our work, our play,
our anger, our pain,
our sickness, our health,
our laughter, our tears,
knowing that the One who has made the sacrifice
and invites us to His table
will NOT turn us away,
but will accept us for who we are.
And Love us.
And Forgive us.
And Transform us.
There’s always room for one more!
Set an extra place at your table for the unexpected guest, the memory of one dear to you, those who have not found places of welcome in our world…
What is your table’s story? Take a moment to consider the ways in which your table has literally or figuratively supported you and those to whom it belonged before you.
Our Welcoming Growth Journaling Page offers seven daily prompts to guide you as you look for ways to cultivate growth within yourself and the world around you this week! Feel free to print the journaling page, forward it to a friend, use it as inspiration for your own journaling practice (or group conversations), or maybe just a food for thought in your quiet time.
We hope you enjoy our Welcoming Growth Journaling Page!
Blessing
God, there is always a place at your table set for us.
Your invitation is extended far and wide.
You call us in, not only for us to know you more intimately,
but for us to know one another more deeply -
to share our stories, to lean in, to learn from the wisdom of another
so that we might grow and flourish in this world,
always making room for one more at the table.
A little Table Talk for your table...
Discuss a time you remember making room for someone at your table, or in another setting. What was the occasion? What was required to make room for them?
Has there ever been a time when extending welcome was difficult for you? What made it so? Looking forward, how might you more easily extend hospitality to your neighbor?
How does the simple acknowledgment of someone’s presence or identity facilitate hospitality - saying hello, for example, or using someone’s preferred name?
Try taking it to the Kids Table...
Have you ever been the new kid at school or in a class? How did your teacher or other students make you feel welcomed in that space?
What can you do to make others feel welcome when they are new or unfamiliar? How does it feel to be welcomed?
Draw a picture of what welcome looks like. Can you add more people to your picture? What else can you add.
Meet Our Welcoming Voice!
Rev. Dr. Patricia Hernandez began her life in the former Yugoslavia, before her parents, who were missionaries at the time, returned to the United States. Growing up in some of the great urban neighborhoods of Dearborn, Detroit and Philadelphia, she developed a deep affinity for and sensitivity towards those who live on the margins of mainstream society. Out of this concern emerged her call to ministry. Currently, she serves as the Associate General Secretary for American Baptist Women in Ministry and Transition Ministries ABCUSA. More than degrees or position, what is important to her is to love God and love others as she lives out God’s call on her life, inviting others to do the same.
To hear more from Rev. Dr. Hernandez throughout the week, follow along on our Instagram!
Here are Five Things to Remember When Setting Your Own Welcome Table!
If you have a story that you would like to be included as a Reader's Write feature, we'd love to hear from you! Message us on our contact page or email us at thewelcometableco@gmail.com.