The table......

If my table could talk......

I have a table that was given to us in 1971 when me moved into our first purchased home.  The neighbor came over and asked us if we would like a table and chairs out of his shed.  "Sure , we will look at it" was our response.....there was this solid brown-painted wooden table with a variety of broken and unbroken ladder back chairs.  We said we would take them and he just gave them to us...thus begins the saga of our family table.
It has ends that slide put so that is fits 12 people around it. The chairs were in need of repair, so that was done and I recovered the seats.
One night when Don was out on a job, I covered the floor and started to take off the dark brown paint to reveal a solid maple table....so beautiful ....I showed the generous neighbor and he kind of turned green with envy....it was astounding. The table was beautiful....we couldn't afford anything like it, but free to us.   What a gift....

If Our family table could talk it would relate the upheavals, the changes, the growth, the history of our family...

Moves to various places, first prayers, a place to hand color geology master thesis maps, hosting missionaries from all over the world.....hearing proposals to go on short term missions, .....marriage plans....family laughter, ...morning devotionals, evening story times, home economics cooking classes, birthday parties of all years and stages, disciplining, meat cutting.....game times....family gatherings,....college groups, Bible study times for various ages, 4H meetings and craft times, soccer dinners, and now another generation of voices have added to the history.......what were the stories that it could have told before it came to us?   Not sure, but I am sure that being released from the dark wooden shed to be revived and cared for was a blessing to it and to us as a family.....if tables could speak.....

When I look around my home, there is not a piece of furniture that was historical in our family as that table...except two rockers, one acquired at an estate sale when  I was pregnant with my oldest son...and the old other, a hand me down from my grandfather..but they came later...not so many stories to tell about our family....


God speaks of tables in his word, first in the furnishing of the tabernacle in the desert, specific directions were given the table of the bread of the Presence...  How it was to be made, arranged , carried and what to go on top....
Exodus 25:23
[ The Table ] “Make a table of acacia wood—two cubits long, a cubit wide and a cubit and a half high.

David showed hospitality to family members of his beloved friend, Jonathan..as well as others....
2 Samuel 9:11b
.....So Mephibosheth ate at David’s table like one of the king’s sons.


Over and over through out the scriptures, table are spoken of for hospitality, blessing, fellowship,questioning....abundance....judgement and feasts.......

Psalm 23:5
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

Psalm 78:19
They spoke against God; they said, “Can God really spread a table in the wilderness.....

Psalm 128:3
Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table.

Mark 11:15 On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers ....

Mark 14:3
While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.

Mark 14:18
While they were reclining at the table eating, he said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me—one who is eating with me.”

Thank you for reminders of history through a simple object that You blessed our family with many years ago...a continual reminder that You have been with us through all stages, ages, providing ....caring....listening.....as we gathered around your table......