Table for How Many?

It has been a while since I have posted something here, and it hasn't been because I didn't have anything to share, but that I have been very busy with things to do. Since my last blog I have visited a large number of family and friends, officiated my first wedding, and continued to get into the lives of people around me. I try to post something when it seems like God is showing me something new and I sense that lately. I am becoming more and more aware that people tend to settle into "life" instead of running the race toward God. I see people I have known for a long time, who are wonderful, kind, helpful, moral people and discover they have not been to a church or prayed to God for a long time. When tragedy or sorrow comes along, they turn to God, but they don't really know Him. He is just one more way of "dealing with" life. He is the "last resort." What they don't understand is that God is Life. All of the effort I see them putting towards temporary things, getting worked up into a frenzy as if this life is all there is. This life is the training ground. This life is the meeting place. This life is the staging area where we learn about eternal things like the nature of God and how to love Him and each other, because that is what we are going to do once this life is over, if we are ready.

We go out to eat much more than we should and usually there is a little desk where the host asks how many are in your party, do you want smoking or non-smoking, and sometimes ensures you are dressed appropriately for the dress code. We sometimes have to wait our turn and share some tiny benches with people we don't know. We sometimes feel like we are wronged when other people are seated before we are. But in the end we usually forget about all of that once we are seated and are enjoying the conversation over the feast set before us. Our lifetime is that little area with the tiny benches and the little desk where we sometimes have to wait our turn. How sad it is to see people get upset while they are waiting. To spend so much time trying to get a better spot on the little benches, complaining about the cramped standing room, worrying about who is getting better treatment, only to realize as the restaurant is closing that they have forgotten to sign in with the host. They are never going to get to visit with family and friends over the great feast, because they placed more importance on the waiting area than on making sure they were "on the list' to be seated. I have made sure that my name is known to the host and have become personal friends with Him. And I know that, as He said, Jesus is preparing a place for me. So, while he is preparing the table, I am learning all I can about him and the place I will spend eternity dining. I am talking to the others who are waiting, discussing the menu, focusing on what is to come. Is your party ready to be seated?