Good morning! And a lovely November morning it is in Mid-Michigan--raining, gloomy, chilly. Yuk! Good day to stay in bed. However, at my age staying in bed has lost most of its charm, especially since there's no one to share it. :) So I'm up and around, getting ready to go to a local cafe for breakfast with a disparate group of friends. One of the guys will be missing today; he's deer hunting. Hope it's pleasanter weather where he is. Several of the folks live in the same neighborhood and have known one another for many years. The rest of us have been "grand-parented" in, via one or another of the core group. Today we will welcome another person; the first one I've invited to join us. I hope they will like each other. What is it about gathering around a table on a regular basis that is so nourishing to our spirits? That's what we do every week at church, gather at God's table to be nourished TOGETHER--the Body gathered. As with my breakfast group, some of us have very little in common at that weekly table, and yet we do, because we share, in varying degrees, the faith that this act means something, something crucial for life. One of the reasons I keep going to "the Table" is because I meet everyone and anyone there--sometimes those still living, sometimes those who now live in a different dimension.
Yesterday I attended a memorial service at my church for a teacher and coach who died too young. Cancer again! The church was packed, with many standing in the aisles. The service was long, as many tributes were given, at length. And yet, the crowd was as one, and though we didn't go to the table literally, I felt the strength and the solace of that body gathered in love and support, reluctantly saying goodbye to a good man, one who will not be forgotten. I'm sure Christ was smiling over it all. This is the seventh death in my life in less than 6 months. You'd think we'd get used to it, wouldn't you? Never! Because each one is special, unique, and the loss of a part of that Body, one less place at the table. Well, maybe not really. But it feels like it.
So I'm going to breakfast and celebrating life and gathering and being together at the Table of Life. Don't forget to breathe! :)
