Our dining table...

As I was peeling potatoes for our evening meal, my mind was filled with many things. Much was going on at the time and there was much yet to be done before supper and then even after. I knew, besides getting the potatoes on to cook, the table needed to be cleared off so we could set it for supper.

And so I thought about our table. It serves many purposes, literally. In the last 24 hours, it has been used to cut fabric and sew, eat breakfast, sit down for a cup of coffee and a devotion, do computer work, wrap gifts, write Christmas cards, color with markers, eat lunch, fold laundry, eat snack, do homework, eat dinner, and conduct a meeting. 

I cannot think of another piece of furniture in this house that gets more use by all of us.

See our table is really the focal point in our home. Our home is small so this is the natural gathering place. The table is often cluttered with many random items from all of its daily use, since not everything gets put away after it is used. And when it comes to supper time, usually much clearing needs to be done in order to actually use the table as it was intended. But despite that fact, it is an important furnishing in our home. Because the table is centrally located in the downstairs, we can be working on things together in close proximity.

For instance, while I peeled potatoes this evening, Isaiah sat at the table working through his homework, while Elias and Lillie wrangled each other on the kitchen floor. See, he could be doing his homework in his quiet room. But he likes to be at the table, at the gathering place, despite the noise. I feel like this is a benefit to us for raising our family. I could send Isaiah off to his room to work, he would be distracted less. But we enjoy congregating together, working together.

I get frustrated at the state of our table sometimes. I wish we could clean up after ourselves a little better. Sometimes I wish we had more dedicated space for some of the things our table gets used for. But then we would be together less. So, the table is a reminder of all the time we spend doing things together.

I wonder about the intent for the table. Did the person who intended the dining table or the concept of it really think through all its many uses?

Did you ever think about your table? Maybe you will never think of it in the same way.

Made in His likeness...

Each time I sit down to meditate on and prepare a children’s Sunday school lesson, I find that I benefit more, personally, than I ever thought I would from the get go. And sometimes it isn’t until I read a passage of Scripture out loud during class that I even hear it, the something that I take away.

This was the case as I prepared a few lessons for the summer program that is currently underway at Covenant. I wanted to use a curriculum that would be meaningful and relevant. I had already decided on a VBS program to stretch out over the summer months….and so my options were limited to VBS curriculum. VBS programs are typically outreach events, so the material is usually the “same old stories”. I was hoping for something deeper than this “same old” that we hear all the time. I kept looking. When I initially read over Gospel Light’s 2015 VBS overview, it was a total salvation message, start to finish. I started thinking, “everyone already knows all of that (or this)”. But the more I thought about it and pondered the texts and ideas in this curriculum, the more I thought it would be so appropriate to talk through the salvation message with the kids in Sunday school as a good reminder of either where they are or where they might desire to go, to lay it all out there in a way that perhaps they hadn’t quite thought of before.

So I purchased it and started reading over the materials and making lists: to do lists, decoration lists, craft lists, volunteer lists, etc. Once I had all these basics nailed down, I started to read for content. It was interesting. Surely if it could catch my attention it would catch the elementary kid’s attention.

I was starting off as teacher the first two weeks so I paid particular attention to that lesson, deciding what to use and when to teach what. After all, I had two Sunday school classes to teach one night of VBS material. If you are familiar with VBS at all, there is way more information than you can even fit into one night. So I felt confident in being able to stretch it. The lessons lend themselves to a teachable idea and then a review. So it seemed perfect. Week one: lesson. Week two: review.

Like I said, it was the salvation message so we were starting off with creation. Blah Blah. Who doesn’t know that story? Even on the first Sunday to teach, I could see it in their eyes, “We already know this story”. But do you? Do you really know it all? Did I? I thought I did. I mean, I’ve read Genesis more times than I can count on all my fingers and toes. Even my daughter recently asked me a question born out of something she heard at school about the creation story, particularly about the moon. We took a moment to open the bible and read it and we answered the question plain as day from the text. It is important to do that, go back and check, read it if you are wondering about something.

Back on track though, as I prepared this lesson I read the words on the page, I read the story, I practiced the ‘stunt’. I read the Bible. But you know, that morning I was teaching, when I read the passage in the bible we all know, something jumped out at me. Something I read often, but thought about in a new way this time.

Genesis 1:26-27: Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Mankind was not only created like everything else, but made special in the image of God. We were made with the likeness of God. Webster defines likeness as, a state of being alike, resemblance. Like the other things God created, mankind had a material body, but also, by design, carried a soul/spirit. This set us apart from the stars and the fish, among other things. We have the ability to think about things, make choices and talk to and love God. No other creature God created had this ability. I used the word resemblance earlier in the definition. By using that word I do not mean to convey that we look like God. God exists without a body, so we cannot ‘look’ like or resemble Him in that way. We resemble God by being made with perfect bodies and the ability to live with God forever.

We all know the rest of the story. I’ll go into more detail on that in the next post, but one of the major take-aways from studying this children’s lesson is the demonstration of love that God gave in His creation. God created us out of love and for love. God loves us and gave us the ability to love Him and others. Ultimately, God made us to be close to Him, to know him and to dwell with him forever. And I am forever thankful for the ways in which God set in place for us to be able to be close to Him and the plan for us to dwell in His house forever.