Friendsgiving

A table is a sacred place. I've grown up eating around a table. When I was younger I can vividly remember running around the rocky pavement of our neighborhood with all of the neighbor kids playing a game of ditch or putting on a show. I would hear my mom calling the names of my sisters and myself and that meant it was time for dinner. We would run inside and have to wash our dirty hands and feet (we never wore shoes) and then it was time to eat. This was always a given. We ate dinner together and we sat around the table together.

I love tables. But as Stephen said, "a table would just be a table if there weren't people around it."

Cue friendsgiving planning. Lo and I have been dreaming of hosting a dinner party for ages. Designing table settings and organizing the food makes my heart sing. Lo and I were giddy with excitement. We collected plates and napkins, sent out lists of food people could bring and set a date. I approached Steve a while back and told him that I needed to have a dinner party and he offered to build a table. He is so talented. He was just as excited to build the table as Lo and I were to set it up. That's why people are cool, we have different passions and they all work together so well.

I woke up before my alarm on November 21st because I was too excited to sleep. Lo, Kenz and I set up the table. I'm sure we sounded like crazy people because we were squealing so much.

Twenty-six of the closest friends came bearing food and drinks and we were ready to eat. We sat outside and ate our thanksgiving food in the most perfect weather God has ever created. We talked and laughed and oohed and ahhed at the wonder of community.

After dessert was eaten, Steve stood up and started talking. He said that he has been blown away by the different ways that we all are so differently and beautifully talented. He asked people to bring something that they created. Barrett read a poem that left me fully in awe of the power of words, Bailey and Mary Stewart painted and Kenz and Kara led us in the doxology.

There I was at the head of the table seeing my vision come to life and then we start singing the doxology and I lost it. Then Stephen told us what he was thankful for and it ended up that we all shared. It was one of the most magical and stunning things I have experienced. My dream was that we would sit around the table until the candles were gone and it happened. This is community. This is family. This is friends. This is intentionality. This is what we long for.

That table and that night were a thin place. The line between heaven and earth was so thin I got a small taste of what is to come and I didn't want to swallow.

All I can say is Praise Jesus.