The Table Extended

Our Easter Sunday morning service was based on the story of a discussion that took place between two people and Jesus on that first Easter. The two, whose names are not mentioned, were so perplexed about what had happened over the weekend that, when Jesus came and joined them, they did not recognize Him. It is recorded that they continued to talk about how their hopes for a Redeemer had been diffused. It is a scene that has intrigued me - Jesus not telling them who He is but, instead, reminding them of how they had been told what would happen. Did they not look at Him then? 

In another account we find Mary in the garden, so grief stricken that she mistook Jesus for the Gardener. And when Thomas heard that Jesus had been seen, he declared that unless he saw the nail prints in his hands, he would not believe. Veils, covering our eyes, can come in the form disappointment, undeniable grief or just needing proof. 

What I appreciated in the story is that,
when they got to their home, the two invited Jesus to join them at their table, a place of intimacy.
In Luke 24: 30 it says,
When He was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him.

I think of our own table . . . this year adding a leaf and a side board  . . .

and gathering chairs from other parts of  the house so we could eat together.

It is a place of communion . . .

where even as family we make ourselves vulnerable
and it comes with a blessing.

Before we ate, the children were given a chance to read their verse on their plate.

We were blessed by the reading as well as the singing of For God so Loved the World . . .

and a granddaughter asking to say the prayer.

Sometimes it is the young, with unveiled faces, 

leading us to the truth before our very eyes.

They also had fun at their end of the table!
And we all had another wonderful Easter.