AROUND THE TABLE 4/6/09

AROUND THE TABLE!
This is Easter Holy Week, Let’s look in on the various tables we sit around and how Jesus makes sitting around the table a part of the Christian walk. A part of being together in one mind!

After my Dad passed away and we moved to a three bedroom house, there were only 9 of us at home. 4 boys, 4 girls and Mom. Jean and I shared the middle bedroom in twin beds! I was 15, she was close to 30. I had finally arrived!. Not really sure what that meant exactly but I felt grown up. Most of the cooking in my youth was done by my brother Lloyd, Mom and Daddy. Mom always worked! Daddy worked off and on! Lloyd didn’t work until he became employed by Knauss Bros. cleaners. Lloyd became the pickup and delivery man which meant he didn’t cook during the week anymore.

In my sophomore year I became involved with GAA, the Girls Athletic Association. In Gym I played basketball as a guard which was a laugh because I was 4'10 ½ . But the game was played a little different then. I was trying out for volleyball in GAA and found my name on the alternate list to play when Mom hit me with a bomb shell. I was to get home after school and prepare the evening meal. I didn’t know how to cook! She said I would learn!

She had a chalk board on the kitchen wall and every afternoon after school I would read my instructions and try to put the dinner together. Once it read; "cook the spuds in their jackets"! What were spuds and what were their jackets? Rule No. 1; "never call Mom at work". I called her anyway! "They are potatoes! Cook them with the skins on!"

Lonnie would come home just about the time I was beginning to make gravy. At first, because I didn’t know how, I would ask him to show me. He would take me through the steps and then I would finish it up by stirring it until thickened. I liked that! Every night as he walked in the door, I would ask if he would help me again and every night he would stop and get me started and I would finish. Afterwards, he would always fix a sandwich and go into the livingroom and eat it, because he never ate lunch.

I was thankful I wasn’t cooking in the other house while there were so many at home. We always would have, meat, potatoes, vegetables and salad. Sounds normal, but the size of each dish was immense. Roasts, fried chicken were served only on Sundays. Potatoes filled the largest pot we had and the largest bowl in the house and it was mounded high. Everything was huge and Jean would put all left overs in a pot on Saturdays and call it glop. I still fixed the same four foods but in smaller amounts, set the table and we would all sit down together as we always did. Except for Lonnie who would fix his plate and take it into the livingroom to watch TV.

In Genesis 2:24 it says; "Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh". Mark 10:8 adds; "and the two shall become one". This was the beginning of a family. Husband and wife! Children, usually is the result of this union and gives meaning to family life. Jesus loved the children! In Mark 10:14b Jesus says; "Let the children come to me, do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God".

In Proverbs and in many scriptures throughout God’s word He gives instructions on how we are to treat each other within the family. Even though it does not say exactly, sit around the table; Eat together; Talk about your day with each other! Sitting around the table is a great memory for me!

I have heard that families that do not sit together around the table are considered a dysfunctional family. Sometimes highschool gets in the way of families sitting together around the table. Teens become involved in many extra after school activities. The table is a familiar place and it can always be found again. I have heard that a family that prays together stays together. Perhaps it should be said that the family that sits around the table also stays together. I think both work for me! By Jane Ann Crenshaw 2/7/08