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Saturday, December 21, 2013

Setting the Table

Today I set the table for a special meal: the first of our Christmas dinners.  While I arranged the plates and the napkins, the spoons and the glasses, I was reminded of this prayer that I first read some time ago...
Setting the Table

As I lay the fork near the plate,
let me remember this is Your table, not mine.
As I set the water glasses down
and fold the napkins, let me be reminded
that every setting at this table
is Yours, not mine.
Each one who will partake of this meal
is a particular someone You love, a someone
You have made and whom You sustain.
In You nothing and no one is forgotten.
How vast and providential is the memory
with which You keep us all.
It is only we who forget You
and then one another.
It is we who starve each other
and exclude each other.
Give me new eyes.
When the glass is raised by my friend,
let me see You drinking.
When the fork is lifted by my child,
let me recognize You eating.
You are the hidden joy which feeds
and keeps everything. You are the table,
the guest, the meal, and the commemoration.
Make in my person a place setting for You.
Remind me of my true nature
which is recalled only in You.
~ Gunilla Norris, in Being Home
(Yes, I know the tablecloth is wrinkly.  No, I don't care.  By the time we gathered to eat, nearly every inch of the tablecloth was covered--with dishes of ham, scalloped potatoes, wild rice with dried fruit, my sister's famous mac and cheese, my sister-in-law's infamous ;-) brussels sprouts, sauteed mushrooms, dill beans/green olives/Jeff's pickles, a fresh veggie tray, and cranberry salad, etc.  Believe me, with all that food piled high, no one was wasting a second wondering if there was a wrinkle underneath the nearest trivet.  ;-)  Ironing tablecloths is a task that lands so far down on my priority list that it's not even on the list!)  :)

3 comments:

  1. I sincerely appreciate this reminder that we are doing things for Christ, and for His children this Christmas. I want to remember this poem as we prepare for and attend several Christmas and New Year's celebrations.

    I never gave a single thought about the wrinkles in your table cloth! I was just admiring it and thinking it was the same pattern as a dark green on I have for our table. I am like you with ironing. I *may* iron something for a wedding, or if we were going to a king's coronation, but other than that, no ironing gets on the list around here!

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  2. "A king's coronation" - you make me laugh, Sally! :)

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  3. Didn't notice any wrinkles until you pointed them out, then I found myself scrolling back up the page to check them out!
    Lovely big Christmas.
    Have a wonderful blessed time at little christmas too.

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Thank you...
~ for taking a moment to spill your thoughts,
and, in so doing,
~ for being a blessing to those of us who read these words!