our kitchen table

particularly in winter, i find our kitchen table to be the warmest place in house.  several years ago i would have never recognized it as such a sweet space of hospitality and inclusion.  this small, square pine table belonged to my grandmother (my mother's mother) and because she died when i was young it is a prized item in my life.  it sits by a window with a lamp on it and offers us a perfect view of the garden in the back. 

yesterday was dank and dark and the ground was still covered from a recent snow fall.  we had a neighbor to dinner, our friend ms. dee, and she arrived just after 4 p.m.  while i worked on the meal, i could hear eruptions of laughter from the living room as she and isaac made up funny names for one another.  they played happily for quite some time.  geoff came in dirty and wet from his work with construction. 

shortly after five (and truly after dark) the four of us sat around the table for dinner (enjoying the jarred fragrances of summer thanks to some tomato sauce from the sleeths).  while ms dee is a regular guest in our home, for some reason last night i was acutely aware of the joy she brings us and of the rightness of  extended family god's way.  expanded table fellowship resulting in new ways of belonging to one another might be one of the sweetest fringe benefits of this life in mission.  there is certainly alot of unseen value in a table.