Table

I knew this day was coming but I wasn’t looking forward to it. Over the past month or so, I have been to an average of 3-4 football games each week, with the potential of having five where one my sons is playing. And I love football and I love that they are able to play and enjoy the benefits of the sport. And I love being able to go to most of their games to cheer them on.
However, it is also a lot of time to commit to football. And, honestly, I’m not sure there is much that can be done about it. But of all the things I miss in our schedule, the thing I miss most is the more intimate time with my kids and specifically sitting around the dinner table for meals.
And though we still have some nights where we can do that, and I really try to make those valuable and worthwhile, it just isn’t as often as I’d like. And this isn’t going to be one of those ‘good old days’ articles, because the old days probably weren’t that good and we can’t go back anyway. But I miss those meal times. There’s just something that happens around the dinner table that allows for something that doesn’t seem to happen anywhere or anytime else.
Henri Nouwen writes, “The table is the place of intimacy. Around the table we discover each other. It’s the place where we pray. It’s the place where we ask, ‘How was your day?’ It’s the place where we eat and drink together and say: ‘Come on, take some more!’” At the table we, usually, slow down a little bit and can set aside the other activities and devices that often cloud our lives and just be together.
And the problem we face in our world, especially today, is that if we don’t have that intimacy around the table, where do we find it? How do we grow closer together if we aren’t sharing meals and slowing down enough to spend quality time with each other?
The problem is there isn’t that time. Less and less are we sitting together and sharing life stories and experiences and just getting to know one another. And that’s not just for immediate families. It’s for extended families and churches and communities as a whole. We simply don’t take the time to be together.
The author of Hebrews reminds us of this in 10.25, “Let us not give up the habit of meeting together, as some are doing. Instead, let us encourage one another all the more, since you see that the Day of the Lord is coming nearer.” (GNT) We need to spend quality time together more now than probably ever and around the table is a great place to do that. I pray we find ways to do that well. God bless.