At the Table

It is a beautiful day here.  The weather has dried up and turned nice even though it is still cold at night.  The lilac bushes are in bloom, and there a butterflies everywhere.  Even though the water of the lake is icy, all the younger folks around here have taken at least one dip.  They come out freezing but exhilarated, fully alive.

  They delivered our new bed today, and it is all set up.  I expect to sleep soundly tonight, although sleeping soundly has not been a problem.  The room is dark and the air is so cool that I have much more trouble getting out of bed than I do at home.  I feel lazy.

  I have spent some of my evenings reading this book…

I highly recommend it.  It is a wonderful and practical explanation of Jesus’ teachings and the life He is calling us to live.

  Tonight this passage struck me.

  “Once when Jesus is teaching, Mary and her other sons come to the door of the home in which Jesus is teaching.  They are looking for him.  They send someone inside and interrupt his teaching.  Some of those in the home inform Jesus that his family wants him.  Jesus asks a stunning question: ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’  Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers!’  The new society Jesus creates around the Jesus Creed is like a family—they share their lives with one another, they care for one another, and they do all of this around Jesus.”

  This describes what I find here at Camp of the Woods.   Since I’ve been here we’ve already had groups come and go; our group from Tennessee, several from a church in Minnesota.  Right now we have ladies from Georgia and Indiana, and a guy from Michigan.

  We all sit down to the table together.  Meals here right now are long and leisurely.  There is time to talk, time to tell a good story, time to share our lives.  But it is at the table that we are family, brothers and sisters in Christ.  It is at the table we engage in communion.  It is at the table we are one.

  It is quite an adjustment for me.   I am too often in a hurry to move on to the next thing.  I get antsy.  I’m learning to be more patient, to take time to be still, to take time to listen.  

  Right now, there is time.  And it is a blessing.