Come to the Table {Summer Blog Swap}

Welcome to my Summer Blog Swap. Over the next four weeks, I am inviting four of my writing friends to this space to share their hearts and perspective. It’s a fun way to introduce some of my favorite writers to all of you.  This week I’d like you to meet Carol Graft. Carol loves to encourage and equip others on this journey in Christ. I am so excited to be wrapping up the Summer Blog Swap with Carol’s words.

guest post by Carol Graft

Imagine you find out about a gathering that sounds amazing, that you want to be a part of, but you aren’t invited.

“We all start on the outside…the outside looking in.”

Have you ever felt left out? Like you were on the outside looking in? The new kid in class kind of feeling?  The new employee seeing the gathering at the water cooler or the lunchroom? The new mom in the school or neighborhood mom’s group? Maybe even the new person in church?

“This is where grace begins.

We were hungry, we were thirsty

With nothing left to give

Oh, the shape that we were in.”

 

Always feeling like no matter how hard you try you can’t measure up?

We are merely hungry and thirsty for something this world can’t offer.

Even when we think we’ve left the baggage, our worries, our past behind something new pops up.

A new situation, or a new voice, that’s a voice that’s been around since before Time began, that tells us again that we messed up and we aren’t worth anything.

But that voice isn’t the voice of God. He offers us always a place at His table.   

“Just when all hope seemed lost,

Love opened the door for us.”

Let me introduce to you some people you may have heard of, who also didn’t appear to ‘fit in.’  To encourage you that you do have a place [at the Master’s table. ]

There are liars-

Remember on the night of the betrayal, arrest and illegal trial Peter was asked if he knew Jesus?

John 18: 25-27

Peter lied. Denied knowing Jesus.

And yet, Jesus had told Peter that he was the Rock the church was going to be built on. Matt,. 16:18  Jesus gave Peter the power to bind and to lose.

There are thieves.

Yes, Jesus called a thief to be one of his own.

Three gospels record it.

Matt. 9:9-13

Mark. 2:13-17

Luke 5:27-28

Matthew, was a tax collector, therefore in everyone’s mind a thief.

When Jesus called Matthew to come and follow him it probably caused a few eyebrows to raise, and heads to shake, and questions to arise of the disciples that already were following Jesus.

“There’s no one unwelcome here,”

“So that sin and shame that you brought with you

You can leave it at the door”

One night Jesus was at a banquet.  And a woman walks in; she’s called ‘the sinful woman” in Luke 7:36-38.

He goes on to say this woman did what the host did not do. Even though it was customary, the host did not provide water to wash the dust from his feet or oil to anoint his head as one did with guests when they arrived at a house.

She left her sin and shame outside the door,

She left her past behind her.

May have even walked right by some people of her past.

But she found redemption and grace literally at the feet of Jesus.

But God doesn’t just love on the liars and thieves.   Take Mephibosheth from 2 Samuel

Mephibosheth was without hope. Broken, crippled. Ignored.  But David, out of Love for his friend Jonathan seeks him out and takes him to the palace. To live and feast at the king’s table for the rest of his life.

He loves on the broken, the worn down. Whether that’s a real case like Mephibosheth or perhaps it’s just the cares of the world.  Like the woman before the judge who was willing to eat the crumbs. Some rescue and relief better than nothing.

He bids you, to come to the table.  This table is at a wedding banquet.

Rev. 19: 7 “Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb, has come”

I heard recently that the wedding feast in Hebrew culture was the picture of salvation.

Maybe you aren’t in a place in your life where you fit any of these ‘labels.’

Perhaps you are in a season where you aren’t plagued by your past mistakes, but you still feel like you don’t fit in.

Jesus says we are aliens…. We are not of this world.

There are times you feel like you don’t fit in because your spirit is telling you we aren’t of this world.

So that feeling of not belonging is the tension of being spirit filled and this place that your living and call home, but it’s not the home your soul is seeking.

That doesn’t mean we abandon our lives here because there is good and holy work to do for and in God’s kingdom right now, right here.

We still long for a place to fit in.

As the bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so the Lord rejoices over you” Isaiah 62:5.

The Bible speaks of this banquet as the Banquet of Redemption.   

Did you catch that?

Redemption.  

Whether you messed up a decade ago, last year, yesterday or tomorrow.  Jesus offers omnipotent grace, and Love sits at the head of the table offering redemption.

It is the marriage supper of the Lamb and His bride.  

Carol lives in West Michigan, where she’s close enough to the beach to chase sunsets. She has been married 34 years and counting. Carol is a mom to seven, mostly grown, children, four of which are married and blessed then with three grands. She loves to teach and encourage others on this journey with Jesus. You can follow Carol’s writing here.  She also writes for Breathe Writer’s Conference Blog.

Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash