The Gift of the Present

Table Talk



Setting the Table

You are welcome here. Come just as you are, bringing whatever is on your heart today. 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 the bare trees in winter and how the new life waiting to begin is made possible by the changing seasons.

When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand.
- Henri Nouwen

Lamentations 3:22-23
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.


Food for Thought

This year has been filled with grief for so many. From a global pandemic to individual, personal loss, we have all journeyed through this year with our own sense of grief. I am no exception. I have experienced a lot of personal grief in this year. Recently, I received news of the death of my fraternity brother, gone too soon at the young age of 31. Earlier this year, a close childhood friend was sadly and unexpectedly found deceased. He was only 32. Last month, my grandmother suffered a major stroke that paralyzed her entire left side and affected 3 out of 4 lobes in her brain. Grief and death seem to be swirling around me.

All of this while I am patiently and desperately waiting to meet my new child.

I find myself oscillating between funeral services and baby showers; doctor’s appointments with reports of life both growing and diminishing. I am holding in one hand the sadness, anxiety, and grief of loved ones departing this world and, in the other hand, the hope and promise of new loves to come.

This is an interesting juxtaposition, to say the least.

Yet, in the darkness and despair I continue to find life and light in the ways people show up for each other – in the ways they’ve shown up for me – with their gifts, love, kindness, and encouragement. Although the amount of loss I have experienced this year has felt heavy and overwhelming, the amount of love I have received to lighten the grief has been immeasurable.

Life has an interesting way of holding contradiction. The key to a full and robust life is to know there is no joy without pain, no gain without loss, no growth without strain. There is no permanent partition between the dark and the light sides of life - we will always find ourselves oscillating from one side to the other.

Therefore, when I think about welcome, I cannot help but think about how God has a way of offering provision. Provision comes in the slightest touch of a loved one. Provision comes in a simple phone call or text. Provision comes in the memories we have been blessed to hold. Provision comes that will sustain you from one high to the next low. Provision comes in the promise that “the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (Lam. 3:22-23)

In the film Kung Fu Panda, Master Oogway, a thousand-year-old tortoise, says to Po the Panda something I have never been apt to forget: “Yesterday is history, tomorrow a mystery, but today is a gift which is why it is called the present.” A new day is indeed a gift. Therefore, we should always attempt to open our present with joy, even if what we find inside we might rather do without.

Grief and gladness are never permanent. Each comes and goes just like a vapor, yet what remains is the presence and love of God that follows us through every season. God is the welcome that beckons us to find solace in the ever-present help given through God’s faithfulness. Thus, we should hold each day, each moment, with humility because each new day always brings new gifts, new surprises, new discoveries, new wonders.


Count your blessings and your griefs. Our lives are busy and full, which makes it easy for us to overlook our blessings and creates within us a tendency to move quickly past our sorrows. Take some time this week to practice being fully present in your own life.

Start your day by first listing 5 things for which you are grateful. Then, list the griefs you are carrying with you. Acknowledge the ways God is with us in both the joys and the sorrows.

Blessing

God, your love is steadfast.
In the midst of our grief and
in the midst of our joy, you are faithful.
Help us to see the mercies made new to us each day.

A little Table Talk for your table...

  • Share with a friend a time when you have experienced grief.

  • Was it difficult to imagine a time when there would again be joy while you were working through your grief?

  • How were you able to experience God during that time?

Try taking it to the Kids Table...

  • Talk with your kiddos about the changing seasons. Discuss how the new life of spring is made possible by this transition.

  • We are like the seasons! Some days are happy and some are sad. Have them think of a time when they were sad and ask them to share something that helped them in that moment.

  • List ways we can see God in both the joyful and sad moments.

Meet our Welcoming Voice!

Rev. Darrell R. Hamilton, II is the Executive Minister for Operations and Resource Development at Middle Church in New York, NY. Darrell is impassioned by the way politics and faith merge together in the Christian theological traditions of justice and liberation. He believes that through the Christian values and ideals of diversity and inclusiveness, advocacy for the vulnerable and marginalized, the Christian tradition has within itself the means necessary to inspire our nation and world toward greater justice and love for all.

To hear more from Rev. Hamilton throughout the week, follow along on our Instagram!

Rev. Darrell R. Hamilton, II