Living Life at the Kid’s Table

As adults, we don’t want to be at the “kids table” – do we?

Have you ever went to a wedding reception or a fundraiser dinner only to find that your seats are way in the back away from the head table? You can’t really see or hear what’s going on at the head table and you miss all “the action” of what the important people are doing. Maybe you get your food last! You don’t get to brush shoulders with the hosts or people you’d really like to interact with. Jesus once addressed this type of situation: when you are invited to a big dinner, don’t go out of your way to get the best seats. In fact, when you host a banquet, don’t invite the upstanding important people who are the “in-crowd”, instead invite the lowly. To Jesus, this makes God’s kingdom real and visible – but why? Why do this? Why should we be eating at the reception equivalent of the kid’s table at Thanksgiving?

The truth is centered in this: God wants us to live life at the kid’s table of life. Life is happening at the low, humble, and least-of-these places that require our love, grace, hospitality, and attention. We can be the presence of God to another when we place ourselves at the little tables of life. These moments are holy moments. Lives can be changed when we humble ourselves and place ourselves at the place where we are needed most – not where we most want to be.

I choose to believe that there is nothing more sacred or profound than this day. I choose to believe that there may be a thousand big moments embedded in this day, waiting to be discovered like tiny shards of gold. The big moments are the daily, tiny moments of courage and forgiveness and hope that we grab on to and extend to one another. That’s the drama of life, swirling all around us, and generally I don’t even see it, because I’m too busy waiting to become whatever it is I think I am about to become. The big moments are in every hour, every conversation, every meal, every meeting
Shauna Niequist, Cold Tangerines: Celebrating the Extraordinary Nature of Everyday Life

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