“When I go up to Heaven, will God just pull-up a chair for me or will He need to build a bigger table?”  This is the question that my son asked me from the backseat of our car one hot summer afternoon.  I was not only struck by the beauty of his child-like faith, but also by this image of hospitality.

You see, I love the whole idea of hospitality.  I am a sucker for the Hallmark commercials around the holidays, the ones showing loved ones laughing and sharing home-cooked meals around a large candle-lit table or thoughtfully exchanging gifts in front of a warm, cozy fireplace.  This ideal portrait lingering in the back of my mind, I tend to fall short in the area of hospitality.

While I cherish my friends and family, I find myself thinking about how nice it would be to invite them into our home more often; yet, I rarely get around to making it happen.  I want to create that Hallmark moment, not only for myself, but for those who enter my home, and this very yearning is one of the big reasons why I shy away from the inviting.  Because my life can be messy, my children are not always easy-going and sociable, and I possess an innate craving for quiet and calm to recharge, I know that realistically, I cannot measure-up to my own expectations of hospitality.

Acknowledging my own shortcomings,  I keep coming back to the image of God pulling-up a chair for me at His table.  I can bet He would be much less concerned with creating the perfect ambience and more focused on letting me know that I am loved and welcome at His table.   As I approach this season of Thanksgiving and the days that follow, I am challenged to relinquish my ideas of perfection in order to make more room for those He brings into my life.  When given the opportunity,  may I always choose to build a bigger table or pull-up another chair!

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