more than one way to set a beautiful table

This time of year there seems to be a lot of emphasis placed on the ability to set a beautiful table.  No doubt the Thanksgiving and Christmas editions of Southern Living and Martha Stewart Living will be full of helpful ideas on how to decorate and set the perfect table for the holidays.  From centerpieces to place markers, the ideas will be abundant and the photos will be lovely, yet likely unachievable for the likes of me :).  People will spend countless hours and dollars trying to set the perfect atmosphere to enjoy the holidays around the table with the people they love the very most.  Now, if I'm being totally honest (and I always try to be), I have to say that I do think it's possible to go overboard with this as far as time and money are concerned.  But, I am not at all suggesting that setting a physically beautiful table is a bad thing, especially when the motivation is the love of your family and the desire to create a beautiful space to enjoy being with each other.  I would, however, like to suggest that there is more than one way to set a beautiful table....


You see, yesterday at lunch I had the privilege of sitting at a beautiful table that I believe was set by God.  At the far end of the table the place card read "Carl". Carl is a middle aged, african american man confined to a wheelchair.  Carl came with his physical therapist and our good friend, David.  David picked Carl up for church and then brought him to lunch.  That's not part of David's job as a PT, just what he does because he follows Christ.  Scattered among the place cards of the 15 children at the table were two that read "Mya" and "Chasity".  Mya and Chasity are two beautiful and precious african american girls that we take turns picking up and that spend a lot of time with our families.  They are 13 and 15 year old sisters.  Across from me sat the Glissons, a family that recently moved to town after returning from years of mission work in Uganda.  They have lots of place cards! To the mix, they bring their 4 biological children and the 2 little miracles they adopted while in Uganda, Brooks and Ansley.  


Ok, there really were no place cards.  There were no elaborate centerpieces.  This table was long and loud and scattered with dirty napkins and Jason's Deli advertisements.  There were half eaten plates of food, melted ice cream cones and empty cracker wrappers.  In order to see the beauty of this table you had to look up...at the faces.  The faces that were black and white, old and young, rich and poor, biological and adopted, born in America and born in Africa.  As I looked up and around, I just couldn't help but feel that I was sitting at a truly beautiful table.  A table set by God with Christ as the beautiful centerpiece.  And I was filled with gratitude that one of the place cards read "Jenny".