By Toni Ford
When I was a child, my mom always stressed the importance of our family sitting down and eating a meal together at least once a day. As I recall, we usually ate breakfast and dinner together as a family around our small round table in the breakfast room, the room named for where we ate our meals together.
Today, the thought or idea of a family eating at least one meal together is almost completely unheard of. I have many fond memories of our family sitting around the table eating, talking, even arguing at times, but in all honesty, many fruitful and hard life lessons were learned around our table of five. One thing our family knew was that this time of eating a meal together was super important to my mom, so much so, that when she passed away, my first vision of her in heaven was her sitting at a table and eating with Jesus at His banquet table!
Jesus mentions eating at a table in Scripture and also gives us instructions on who we should invite to our table and who is invited to His table. Below are just a few verses describing the Lord’s table.
Luke 14:13 – 15. “Instead when you have a party, invite poor people, disfigured people, the crippled, the blind! How blessed you will be that they have nothing with which to repay you! For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. On hearing this, one of the people at the table with Yeshua said to him, ‘How blessed are those who eat bread in the Kingdom of God!”
Luke 13:29-30. “Moreover, people will come from the east, the west, the north and the south to sit at the table in the Kingdom of God! And notice that some who are last will be first, and some who are first will be last.”
Revelation 19:9. “And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”
These verses reveal the heart of our Father, that His invitation to come and eat at His table is open to anyone from any nation, and that His invitation extends to the those who we might normally never invite to our table. God will never force anyone to come dine with Him, so His invitation must be accepted by each one of us. Once we do sit and dine with Him, it is then that God begins to teach and draw us unto Himself, so that ultimately, we are able to one day sit at the final table with Him, the “marriage supper of the Lamb.”
There is a song I recently came across written by Idina Menzel called “At This Table.” I recently heard a beautiful rendition of this song by Selah. You can find the song on YouTube. It is a beautiful picture depicting the table of the Lord.
At This Table
At this table, everyone is welcome
At this table, everyone is seen
At this table, everybody matters
No one falls between
At this table, you can say whatever
At this table, you can speak your mind
At this table, everything’s forgiven
There’s enough for everyone
So come as you are
Remember that the door is always open
Yes, come as you are
The perfect gift that you could bring is your heart
So, come, come as you are
At this table, there will be no judgement
At this table, mercy has a seat
At this table, we’re all sons and daughters
There’s no place I’d rather be
So come as you are
Remember that the door is always open
Yes, come as you are
The perfect gift that you could bring is your heart
So, come, come as you are
Come as you are
At this table, everyone is welcome
At this table, everybody cares
At this table, everybody matters
So, come, pull up a chair.
My prayer for each of us during this holiday season is that we would take the time to pull up a chair and enjoy this beautiful table of with our Lord!