Now that’s a prepared table!
No card table here. No TV trays and folding chairs. No paper plates and sporks. No paper towels for napkins. There are no styrophone cups, No scrunched up seating, with the constant “excuse me” as someone bumps into you as they try to get through the line. Oh yea, and no line! You are sitting down at the table and being waited upon.
Dare I mention what’s on the menu. I’ll tell you what’s not. You’ll find no tater tots here, No reconsituted anything, No chicken nuggets, No turkey breast that’s been ground up and squished into a tube to be sliced and hidden in green gravy. It’s all being prepared by the greatest chef of all time. It’s the ultimate feasting experience. Oh yea, and a very important part, someone else has picked up the tab.
Man, I can sure get excited about that. I really like that “Thou preparest a table before me,” part in the Shepherd’s Psalm. What I have said above can’t even hold a candle to the preparation that’s really going on. God said it hasn’t even entered into the mind of man, the things He has prepared for us.
But wait, there’s more. (not meaning to sound like an infomercial.) The more part is where the banquet table is. “In the presence of my enemies.” Oh Oh!
Now it could be that this table is in a banquet hall, but since a warrior shepherd is writing this, I forsee the above mentioned table set out on a grassy plain with hordes of metal clad, war-cry shouting, giant philistines on the horizon. Who could possibly enjoy even a scrumptious meal in such a setting. As a dean at a children’s camp, I found I had to take my meals to an adjacent, quiet room because their innocent noise gave me indigestion. I can’t imagine being able to enjoy anything with hordes of people screaming for my head. . . Kind of like President Obama at a Republican fund -raiser.
But, the great part of it all is, there are no worries here. It matters not who is in the room or on the horizon that is out to get you. There dastardly plans will come to naught because you are in perfect peace in the presence of the master chef/shepherd. He has come to give us peace and an abundant life.
I like that Philippians passage that says. “in no way alarmed by your opponents — which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you, and that too, from God” Phil. 1:28 . NASU
Dinner is served. Let’s eat!
Leaving a Legacy 