Decorate Your Life with the Centerpiece of God’s Great Grace
I did not get the entertaining and decorating gene that my mom and my sister have. Their homes look amazing, especially for the holidays. When we all gather at my parent’s home next week for Thanksgiving, Mom’s table will be gorgeous.
My Mom’s table beckons us to come and fellowship.
Her beautiful table with its festive centerpiece provides a welcoming scene that makes us want to linger around the table, visit and share stories from each other’s lives while we devour the tantalizing morsels on our plates. That got me to thinking…
Our daily lives are a metaphorical table around which we relate to others. Do I have a life that invites people to linger, share, and receive nourishment—relational as well as physical? Or am I so busy and wrapped up in myself that the people in my life feel like I’m hosting them at a drive through window rather than a sit down dinner?
Paul’s words to the Ephesians are a good reminder of what having the right centerpiece in our lives means. He asks his readers to recall how it felt to be “without hope and without God in the world….” (2:12 HCSB)
In the second chapter of this beautiful letter, Paul encouraged the Gentile believers to remember how they had once been excluded from God’s fellowship. “But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near…“(2:13). He reminds them of the unifying power of Jesus to tear “down the dividing wall of hostility.”(2:13) The cross unites us into one body.
Potential for Problems
The holidays, like any other time where people come together, can be a time where dividing walls go up. If we focus on what divides us, rather than what unites us, it can lead to some pretty strained moments around the table (metaphorical or literal).
As I turn to face a holiday season that could too easily become focused on all the wrong things, I want to take a moment to do as Paul encouraged. I want to move forward with an awareness of how far away I was before I knew Christ and how great a peace and hope I have now because of His grace.
How the Right Centerpiece Helps Prevent Problems
When that is my centerpiece, or as Paul puts it, my cornerstone, I will be humbled by how much grace has been extended to me by Christ. That produces a posture of gratitude and praise.
In that posture I naturally am more willing to extend grace to others (even the people with whom I have difficulties) and seek to create an atmosphere that invites people to linger and form real relationships. And guess what? There is no better setting in which to share why I have such a great hope.
So then you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone. (Ephesians 2:19-20)
[reminder]During the upcoming holidays, how might keeping Christ’s great grace at the center of your thoughts help you to set a metaphorical table with your words and actions that welcomes others to linger and build or strengthen a relationship with you?[/reminder]
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