Happy Friday! Since this is the final week in our Table series, we’ll look back at the whole series. Consider how it connects with our new vision and how you plan to be a part.

Reflect

Consider the big takeaways from this series (if you missed any of the sermons or weeks of the Engage God Daily, they are available at cfhome.org/resources.

Week 1: God’s Tables. How are tables a theme throughout Scripture? How does this theme relate to our vision to reduce loneliness, anxiety and addiction by having meaningful conversations where people experience Christ through us?

Week 2: The Last Supper. How did Jesus show us the importance of humble service, being vulnerable with one another, and treating each other with love?

Week 3: The Lord’s Supper. What was community like in the early church? The Lord’s table is an open table, free from favoritism. How can we invite all kinds of people to our tables?

Week 4: The Wedding Supper of the Lamb. Who will be invited to this meal? How can we extend the invitation to others? How can we celebrate our union with Christ now, and prepare for his return?

Connect

One of my friends, Heather Heaton, wrote a beautiful reflection on a childhood blessing that she sung in childhood around her table, and now sings each night with her children:

Every night, as we gather around the table for dinner, we sing “grace.” It’s a song that travelled from my childhood, carrying with it the melody sung by my brothers and parents. The words jolted something within in me the other night, a revelation of sorts that I’ve been trying to piece together the past few days.

Here are the words… you may know them.

“The Lord is good to me,

and so I thank the Lord;

for giving me

the things I need,

the sun, and rain, and the apple seed.

The Lord is good to me.

Amen.” (Which my youngest son, Sam always yells.)

Thousands of times I have sung this song, thinking it was weird to thank God for apple seed when we were sitting down for dinner. I had always wanted to change “apple seed” to apples, or some other actual food that we consume, but then the song wouldn’t rhyme. I wanted to thank God for the fruit, not the seed. Because the fruit is what we consume, what we look for in life — the evidence of blessings and gifts and abundance.

Or so I thought.

She goes on to say that during this season of COVID-19, when she’s not accomplishing all that she’d like and is feeling unfruitful, God is teaching her to be grateful for the seed.

As we’ve been reflecting for the last several weeks on Christ Fellowship’s new vision, her post reminded me that as a church, we will also need to be grateful for the seeds. Our vision isn’t flashy. It will be hard to quantify. There won’t be a tangible building or ministry program that we can point to as “fruit.” But Lord willing, there will be changed lives. Because having meaningful conversations with people is like planting seeds. It begins by caring enough to try and get to know someone and working to build enough trust to get beneath the surface. It’s being present, available, and willing to share the love of Christ. A conversation is small thing. It’s a seed. But there is massive potential in every seed.

This week we contemplated The Wedding Supper of the Lamb, and it is something too wonderful for us to truly grasp. It reminds us that we’re living in the season before the final harvest. We’re still waiting for all God’s promises to be fulfilled. But there is something precious in the promise of fulfillment. There is something precious in the seed that will grow into a mighty oak. An acorn looks nothing like the tree that grows from it, but all the potential is there, just waiting.

Our lives are like that. There is potential in who we are now. There are seeds we can plant in the relationships that we build, the acts of goodness and justice that we do, and the prayers that we pray. God can convert that potential into reality according to his will. He can take simple conversations, and use them to help a person grow spiritually. He can take a small investment of time in doing what’s right and make a real difference.

We may have to wait until heaven to see all that we are come to fruition. We will leave so much undone here in this life. But our God is the Lord of the harvest, and he can and does make things grow. In the meantime, let’s be grateful for the seed.

Respond

How has your relationship with God been impacted by reflecting on his tables? What can you praise him for? How is his Word changing ways you think or act?

We’ve asked all of Christ Fellowship to commit to having a meaningful conversations this fall. Have you made your list? Be praying over the future conversations you will have.