A Seat At The Table

I love dinner time when Brenda, the boys, and I can all sit down at our dining table and enjoy a meal. We take turns going around the table talking about our days and telling one another the best thing that happened that day. Some days are average days. Other days are above average.

We all have our assigned seats at the table. I sit at the head of the table. Brenda sits next to me to my left. Turner sits next to Brenda. Tucker sits at the far end of the table and Taylor sits next to him. Tanner sits next to me to my right. We all have a place at the table.

As thankful as I am to have a seat at this table surrounded by the people I love, I am infinitely more thankful for the seat I have at God's table. Reading [Eph 2:1-7] reminds me that though I was dead in my trespasses, Jesus made me alive and I have been saved by the riches of His mercy and grace. He made a place for me at His table. What a blessing. What a joy. I was welcomed into God's family due to no merit on my own. I was welcomed solely due to God's infinite grace poured out through Jesus' sacrificial death on the cross. I brought nothing to the table but my sin. My invitation to sit at God's table is solely based on grace and mercy. I did not deserve it then, I do not deserve it now, nor will I ever deserve it.

At our dining table the boys used to fight to see who would sit where. Finally we had to assign seats to solve this problem. In Heaven I don't care who I sit next to. I will be eternally grateful that I have a seat. There is something special about having a seat at the family table. It means you belong. It means you are loved.

Those two thoughts comfort me today. I belong to God. He knows the good and the bad about me but he loves me anyway and I still belong to Him. I am still loved. What an endless source of joy. Like the old song goes, "Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain He washed it white as snow." Hallelujah. Before Jesus and His grace applied to my life I was a son of disobedience and a child of wrath. Now, I have a seat at the table. I was adopted. He picked me as dirty and filthy as I was.  He washed me in His grace and cleansed me. Then he gave me a seat at the table.

What about you? Do you have a seat at His table? Do you belong to Him? Have you trusted Jesus for His grace applied to your life to remove the guilty stain of sin? If not what are you waiting for? Today could be the day of salvation for you. Today you could also be assigned  your seat at the table.