FORGIVENESS COMES WITH FINE CHINA

We have such large imaginations, even the most logical of us. We tend to exaggerate the truth to fit into the box of our circumstances or who we believe ourselves to be. The wilder the imagination, the bigger the stretch. Even adults living within reality quite firmly tend to have wilder imaginations than even younger souls. We imagine we can draw a line and place a boundary on forgiveness. We fancy that love itself has a limit and the extent of our own hearts has one too. Wild thinking, isn’t it? Especially when love itself, is God, a real one with no limits. He doesn’t place boundaries on how far he will reach for us. He doesn’t play baseball with our mistakes, there is no three strikes ‘you’re out’. The action of love certainly looks different in each situation and circumstance, but it should never be based on the measure one deserves. I mean, it could be. And almost everyone we know would fall short, but here’s the thing- We never deserved a seat at the table.

The table that God has laid for us, full of his goodness, is one he has invited us all to. A dinner party we did not prepare, cook, or clean for and yet we are invited. I am sure there has been more than one dinner party where I refused to eat what was prepared for me, or even worse- never showed up. Even so, there has always been a seat for me at the table. I am busy and full of excuses, and God certainly has a few billion others to prepare a place for, and still it is always there. The place setting with the world’s finest china. The cloth napkins folded into roses and swans, forks on the proper side, and spoons on the other. Crystal glasses are filled to the brim and warmth seeps from the covered dishes. Prepared for all the anticipated guests, prepared for me, prepared for you. If ever there were grounds for one to remove a plate from the table, replace it, or invalidate the invitation, it would be me. It would be you. We sin and we make mistakes, nothing we have done or ever will do will justify our place at His table. It is forgiveness bound by grace given in love that gives us the right- along with a place setting. We are welcome, we are always invited. After all that we are freely given, who we are we to place boundaries on what this world so often demands from us?

Forgiveness is hard. Loving someone through what they have done is even harder. We don’t really want to invite THOSE people to the dinner party… The time and place where we will laugh, tell stories, consider memories, and make more. Not to mention the food! What we worked so hard to prepare and give to others. Three course meals and flaky, buttery pastries with fresh picked strawberries on top. They surely don’t deserve our effort! Maybe they don’t deserve the effort, but they deserve a place. Set the table. We never deserve a place at God’s table but he sets it anyways. Don’t spend your time worrying about who will show up or even when, just set the table. Give them the call, invite them. Some you may text hours before to remind them, others you send an invite through the mail knowing they may very well forget. That's okay, set the table anyways. Enjoy the ones that come- laugh, tell stories! Don’t count the empty plates, but leave space so that if they should come, they would be welcome. If those that have hurt us should come to our table, dressed and appropriately ready for a dinner party, that they would find a plate full of food and a home full of love. Our job as hosts of a grand dinner party in this life isn’t to worry ourselves over who didn’t show up. Over who ignored our invitation or who didn’t respond, our job is to prepare a feast that gives people something to come to. What will you serve to others when or if they come? We can’t waste our time with bitterness or burnt chicken- simmering over things a little too long. For if we do so, that will be all we have to serve to those who have kindly come, and eventually we too will become hungry for richer things.

 I don’t want a dinner party of burnt main courses and shriveled desserts. I want to have fresh fruit to serve my guests. I want to spend my days in the garden so that when the dinner party arrives there will be fresh fruit to serve them. There will be love, gentleness, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, love, and self-control. I want cook books full of directions, wise measurements, knowledge on how to serve and treat others. I want these to be the ingredients of my presence and the foundation of the conversation around my dinner table. I don’t want forgiveness to be what people come for, I want that to come with their invitation. So that when they come there will be no reminder or elephants in the room. When they come they will know that no elephants were ever invited to come with them. I have friends I celebrate life with around the dinner table all through the week. Others I used to invite, but they stopped coming. I have stopped reminding and inviting them, however, should they come again they will find a place still set for them. I have had friends knocking on the door in response to an invitation, only they weren’t ready. Though they were welcome, they didn’t come ready or dressed appropriately. They came to eat only leftovers or to greedily take what I had so carefully prepared. I have had to turn people away at the door but it was not because there wasn’t a place for them, solely because they did not come for a dinner party. Seems like a lot of place settings and swan napkins to fold, but there is plenty of room. If my table is built of the same thing God’s is, there will be plenty of room and no end in sight.

Don’t save your finest china for the holidays. Set the table, let it be grand and full of wonder. Let it be for lunch on a Saturday or dinner on a Tuesday. Friends and forgiveness are worthy of the finest china and crystal glasses.