Feed my sheep. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst. Let them come. Don’t make it perfect, make it inviting. Full spread of imperfectly cooked delicious food on a table with a few dents and scratches. A warm home, candles lit, soft music playing, or kids crying and dishes in the sink. The bread is still in the oven and the salad still needs to be thrown together, so you invite friends to be participants in the preparations. You bustle around the kitchen adding, adjusting, living authentically. This is not a performance or a parade. This is not entertaining. This is fellowship and community. Masks down, facades put away, genuine tears, unforced smiles. Work turns to rest because striving has ceased. Earning guests’ love or appreciation shifts to loving and appreciating the bountiful Provider and allowing that love to flow onto your brothers and sisters who have gathered. No apologies for the mess but a celebration of the imperfect made perfect through the finished work of Christ.
Fill your heart with the wonder of God’s provision, the Living Water, the Bread of Life. Then, fill your table with the physical reminders of His provision: bread and drink that point to the One who fulfills our deepest hunger and quenches our desperate thirst.
Come! All you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come buy and eat! Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost! Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare. Isaiah 55:1-2
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. John 6:35
So come to my table and come to my Jesus. Come without money or the perfectly crafted side dish. Come partake in the richest of fares, the Bread of Life, the Living Waters. Let’s make much of Him.
Father, as I host, let my heart be full of wonder and in awe of You- the One who gave us the Bread of Life. Thank you for Jesus who satisfies our hunger and thirst and gives us a seat at His table. We, the least deserving and most broken with all our imperfections, are invited to the table of the King of Kings. Let us reflect Your hospitality as we live in eternity’s shadow, knowing that one day we will be ushered in to feast with you in heaven because of the Lamb.
Come and Eat
Come to my table, you have a seat
Come all who hunger, come and eat
Don’t bring money or your shame
Trust that here, I know your name
Come and eat, although you’re tired
Come and eat, in your trials
Here you’ll find a place of peace
Bring me your burdens, come and eat
Bread that fills the weary soul
Water alive that overflows
Abundant provision, taste and see
Come to my table, come and eat
Come and eat, with empty hands
Come and eat, trust my plans
Seated with me, the King of Kings
Your enemies will watch us feast
Delighting in the richest fare
Cast on me your every care
Come to my table, you have a seat
Come all who hunger, come and eat.