A table for everyone

I sat at a table in a restaurant eating a salad. I don’t hate salad. But I don’t like it either. I have never tasted a salad and thought...I can’t wait to eat that again. It tastes OK but It never tastes great. It’s a wonder that the things that are best for you never excite you. If we were talking about a doughnut then my ears would perk up. If you showed me gummy bears my eyes would light up. If you made me fried chicken, mac and cheese, and candied yams I would fall on the floor and thank God with deep reverence. I don’t think I even pray before I eat salads. I just have reckless abandon with healthy foods I guess. If the Lord chooses to take my life after eating kale…so be it. I don’t eat kale. Still, as much as I don’t care for salads, I ate one. The benefits outweigh the taste and the experience. That’s really the crux of it all. The reason I sit here at this restaurant close to tearing up. As I look around at the people eating in this room with me i realize there are all kinds of people eating. There are a black teenager and a white teenager, both guys, eating together. The black kid looks athletic. The white kid is skinny but normal like any other white teenager. The only difference about him is he has a purse. Not a satchel or handbag. A woman's purse. He obviously means for people to see it as he never puts it down. He had this deer in the headlights look in his eye. Usually looking down whenever he walked by to get a drink. I didn’t think much about the purse until i noticed some other kids in the corner obviously talking about his choice of attire. Everyone once in a while a laugh would protrude from their area. As if to hide the obvious cause of their glances. At another table is a young white guy and what looks to be a woman. It’s not hard to tell that the woman has a very male looking face and is transgender. I smile at them as they walk by. They sit down and eat in this restaurant at their own table. They don’t really look like they are noticing each other or anyone else around them. They just quietly eat and look at their phones. Never really saying anything to anyone. In another part of the restaurant, there is a mother with her baby. The baby is resting on her mom's chest quietly. The mom has one of those harnesses that keep the child close to her chest. She quietly and somewhat reverently eats her soup. As if this is the first moments of peace she has experienced today. Then there is me. Eating a salad with a face that says I didn’t choose this plate. As I sit there I notice all these different people sitting at different tables. Everyone seemed like they were enjoying their meals. Then it happens. I have a God moment. No, I don’t try to conceive people I am God. God starts to show me a picture of Heaven. He tells me that just like everyone is here at this restaurant eating he desires for all of them to be in Heaven at the marriage supper of the lamb. If you don’t know there is a part of the bible that talks about a feast that will take place. It will celebrate Jesus coming back for the church, his bride. It is a celebration and everyone is invited but not everyone will be there.Although there will be people that just never accept Jesus into their life as someone that's worth believing in, I sat there at the table in the restaurant with sadness. I started to realize that everyone in this place was invited to this restaurant at some point but there will be people that never get invited to the feast that's located in heaven. So here are some reasons that people never get invited. The way they look. Back before the 1960's, there was this thing called segregation. The ugly part of it was the way you looked decided the places you could go to. People were limited in where they could eat simply because God created their skin color a little different. Obviously the fact that this is no longer an option is a great move toward equality in America. But the problem still exists in church circles. Churches are not openly stopping different races from having church together but the majority of churches in America are still either black or white. That means if that black and white teenager I noticed in the restaurant wanted to go to church together they would either need to go to an all-white church or an all-black church. I don’t feel that there should be any type of desegregation that's enforced by the government or churches. That would defeat the purpose of the Holy Spirit leading that we all enjoy. I am simply pointing out an obvious issue that's not talked about at all. In Heaven, we will all be at the table to eat with our savior. But here on earth we still have churches that are largely divided by how we look. Don’t get me wrong I understand how culture works and how you enjoy hearing about God from someone you can relate to. Few people in the hood would enjoy a 401k lesson on the values of Jesus. Even fewer people in Greystone would be willing to descend to a black guy whooping about Jesus taking our pain in the by and by. For now, our idea of Jesus is based on our culture. However, the Bible doesn’t tell us to depend on culture to find Jesus but to depend on Jesus to find our culture. I have found that some Christians are so critical of the people that sit at the table of Christianity that they can’t even enjoy the meal that's prepared for them. As Christians, we would need to remember that Jesus paid for our meal. David even reflects on this in Psalms and says “You prepare a table for me in the presence of mine enemies”. David knew that the best part of the meal is who prepared it. Not if people liked you or didn't like you. It’s possible you might enjoy more people if you focused on who paid for your life. Through Jesus, we get to enjoy everyone at the table because we didn’t pay for anyone to be there. But Jesus did. We must remember that the price that was paid for our life was paid by Jesus. If he paid for us, he will pay for them as well. Everyone is welcomed at this table. The other problem with looks is that most people think you need a certain look to attend most churches. This is a sad thing about the traditional church. Someone comes into church tatted up and smells like weed. You say, thug and pothead. God sees a bible study leader and a giver.Someone comes into the church with a dress that’s short and too tight, you say ho. God sees psalmist and evangelist. No matter what you see, God sees more. Never assume anyone's life. Believe that God's got a plan that's bigger than you.This was the mood i felt when i was sitting in the restaurant with all the people I described. How they looked didn’t decide if they ate. I know how you might feel. Maybe they look like someone that would hurt me. Maybe they look evil or wrong. I get it and we shouldn't ignore it. Jesus tells us to be “wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove.” He didn’t say this so we could just avoid evil people but so we would understand that we are all evil at one point and we all need help to get to a place where we are not evil. So the question is, who do you invite to eat with you? Would it be the transgender guy or the teenage boy with a purse. Maybe the mom with the noisy baby. I think its worth thinking about because my God is inviting everyone that's willing. And if your first reaction is, "these people wouldn't be willing", I would say that you should think about how many times God has had to reach out to you before you even thought of changing. If grace is only good enough for you then you might not understand the point of God's grace at all. We all belong with our God. He is inviting all of us. Revelations 19:9 ESVAnd the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”