In my wife, Sarah, and I’s kitchen, we have a table that can sit six people comfortably and seven people if we really want to squeeze in tight. We haven’t tried it yet, but that’s how many physical seats we have ready to have warm bodies sitting in them.
It’s with these seats that we want to host people. We want to have people over for dinner to sit in them, to have people over to play games to sit in them, or just to have people over to sit in them to talk when they need to have someone to listen. Bottom-line, we don’t have seven seats just to have seven cold seats in our home; we have seven seats for seven people to warm them up and feel welcome.
But that’s the question - when people come into our home, are we creating space for them to feel welcome? Literally, we know there are seats at the table for everyone, but are we creating a home and a space where there’s actually room for everyone at the table? Where no one is excluded for their looks, thoughts or lives.
A table is more than the seats around it and more than the physical materials it was built with. A table is also built with respect, with openness and with a readiness to listen to all of those who happen to sit around it.
I’ve got the seats and the structure in tact, now it’s time to work on building the intangibles.
-Cliff
Cliff’s Note: A table was not meant to have cold seats, but a warm welcoming that you can feel as soon as one walks through the door.