On Setting the Table

I'm not sure how they got started, but I know cousin Eliza made them famous...THE PLACE CARDS.

At big family events, she made custom name plates for everyone coming to the meal.  The oldest and the newest members alike.  Each year was a different theme.  During our early years we swapped them all around so we could sit by a favorite.  When we were teenagers we teased her badly and rolled our eyes.  She kept up with them anyway.  And actually...we all saved them.

In the spirit of being Real Grown Up, I am hosting Thanksgiving.

And I made the dang place cards.

Looking back, these little placards were one of my first experiences of Grace.  There was always a place at the table just for me.  The chairs were mismatched and a few were wonky.  Two little cousins had to share the piano bench.  And the tallest took the chair that sat low.  There were highchairs.  And wheel chairs.  But there was a place saved.  For me.

No family is a perfect one..even if you have place cards and the chairs all match.  Family is a real, flawed machine made up of a bunch of screwed up humans.  Earthly families can't help but be like that.  They come with boundaries, black sheep, divorce, grudges, addiction, therapy, old wounds, and NOISE.  That is so we get to practice.  Mother Theresa said, "What can you do to promote world peace?  Go home and love your family."  So we gather together.  We keep showing up.  And we practice.

In the Methodist church, everyone in the congregation is welcomed to the communion table.  This is exactly how I believe God holds her banquet in heaven.  She wants us all there.  The ones who haven't called.  The ones who say the wrong thing.  The ones who drink too much.  The ones who are loud.  The ones who have nothing to bring.   She has already saved our spot.  So the place cards help me to remember that for no real good reason except Grace, I get to belong.

Happy holidays and good luck at practice!

Nancy