...the table

I love family time around the table.  I love to hear the stories.  I love to eat the food.  This morning I was thinking of my grandparents (McCrickard) and their kitchen.  I loved the smell of their kitchen.  I can still smell it.  I loved Grandma and Grandpa’s food.  They loved to cook…and watch people eat their food.  Grandpa was a tenant farmer and had a real garden in the back yard.  All the veggies on the table were from that garden and it was good.  A typical breakfast consisted of bacon, sausage, poached eggs, fried taters, fried apples.  Lunch consisted of a meat (fried chicken, meatloaf, steak, and the like), cabbage, green beans with salt pork, squash, greens, black eye peas or pinto beans, fried green tomatoes…oh and we had homemade biscuits and cornbread as well as fresh sliced tomatoes at every meal.  I am salivating at the mouth as I write this.  They cooked with love and they loved who they cooked for.  I remember Grandma and her pretty red hair telling stories.  Grandpa was usually sitting there in his Dickies telling stories.  Grandpa once told me to cut off all of the fat from my steak because the fat was bad for me…then I watched him eat all of the fat that I had just cut off because it was “bad.”  I miss them.  I miss their table.  I miss their food.  I miss the stories.  There is so much that can happen around the table. There are so many stories to hear and so many stories to share.  There is much love to give and to receive around the table…and good food to go with it.  Sometimes even hugs and kissed or maybe even some tears.   There is so much that happens around the table…are you so busy that you miss out on family time around the table?  Don’t do it!  Jesus loved to be around the table.  He did a lot around that table.  As you read in the New Testament, Jesus did some His teaching time around the food table.  “And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me." In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you” (Luke 22:19.20).  We share at the table weekly now.  He also served His apostles by washing their feet (John 13:5-20), He talked about love and He encouraged them as well as talking about the importance of remaining in Him (John 15).  There is so much.  I wonder when John was writing his letter about Jesus, if he remembered the smell…I am sure he did.  He defiantly remembered the stories because he shared them with us.  If you are a parent, don’t rush dinner time (or breakfast time).  If you are a child (and we all are), don’t rush your table time.  If you are gathered around the table with friends, enjoy that moment.  God gave us table time for a reason.  Cook food out of love and share that food and spend time with your loved ones…tell stories.  Hey there are a lot of unloved ones outside around you that would love to be loved…invite them too.  I am thankful for the time around my grandparents table; I will never forget their food or their love.  Remember their is a big banquet table ready for us when this life is over...and Jesus waiting there for us.  There is so much God can do around your table, let Him.  Enjoy your time around the table.  Have a blessed day.