It is the Pinterest time of the year. Thanksgiving table decor, side dishes galore and the desserts… oh yes, the desserts. But it doesn’t end there because Christmas is coming with a plethora of gift ideas, Christmas decorations, and again with the food. Pinterest is a busy place lately.
You could follow me on Pinterest if you wanted. Not sure it would be too interesting considering some of my “best” boards are hidden. It isn’t because I’m afraid of you seeing my pinterest fails, though I sure do have plenty of those. My most active boards are “secret” because they have plans for next summer’s camping season that I’m just not ready to give away yet.
I do like to browse decorating ideas because, truth be told, I am not a designer. I guess my design mode could be known as minimalist OR “minimum amount of money, maximum amount of children with Walmart flare thrown in for good measure.” 😉 BUT… my kids are growing up and I feel a few of them have style in areas I am lacking. One thing they already enjoy is setting out place cards at our bigger family meals. Choosing who will sit where is great fun.
Then there are the rare occasions when the number of people exceed the available seats at the big tables and we have to bring out the little table. At my house being relegated to the kids table isn’t usually received as a good thing.
Do you have a “kids’ table” at your family gatherings? I’ve heard of people who have kid friendly decor and a whole different menu for each table. Other times, like ours, a kid table simply becomes the reality when seating options need to be more creative.
Some kids spend their whole childhood looking longingly, waiting for their turn to sit at the adult table. Other times adults wish they could go back.
In our spiritual lives we can be similar. We can sit wondering when we will be invited to the adult table, feeling like we will always be relegated to the kids’ table. As if we are never good enough and will never have this faith thing together. Sometimes we’ve decided the adult table is just too much and we long for the simpler days of VBS and youth choir. And there are those times we’ve decided we’d rather skip out on the family meal all together and go our own way.
But God invites us to the table, to the kids’ table, though that looks much different than we might imagine it.
John 1:12 says, “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”
Through Christ we have a seat at the table, as a child of God. Not a kids table that is waiting for us to be grown up enough but as a place of belonging.
Through Christ we are children of the King.
What a kids’ table that is!
This Thanksgiving, no matter what the seating arrangement may be at your meal, may God give you a deeper understanding of what it means to have a seat as a child at the table of the King.
~Jillene
Thin Moments 
My cousins and I were discussing our seating arrangement this weekend! We all agreed that We will fight for our rights to The kid table for life. We have two little cousins who still sit with their parent’s and it’s going to change the whole dynamic when they join us. I also thought about how strange it will be when my married cousins have their own children joining us at our “kid” table. My oldest cousin said it will always be our kid table, no matter what. We are definitely holding on to our youth and our desire to stay separated from the adults in our family, even though we all have friends and co-workers who are our parent’s age. But then I thought about that phenomenon where college students tend to leave the church, once they are out of their family influence, but usually return they have their own children and then start to become more adult in their own faith, becoming Sunday school teachers, VBS volunteers. There is something about have responsibility for a child’s faith that pushes people to grow their own. My friend Abbey said that one reason she can’t wait to be pregnant is that she is hoping to have a better understanding of God as our father and our creator. Interesting thoughts! (I didn’t read this on Wednesday because I was saving it for a boring and lonely time 🙂 )
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