Preparing for a Feast

Many of us, in mid-November, are preparing a feast.

Next week, family and friends will gather for what is traditionally the biggest feast day on the American calendar. No hamburgers and hotdogs here!

Preparing for Thanksgiving takes a lot of planning and coordination. Who is coming? Where will they sit? What are their dietary restrictions? What side dish can they add to the table?

What can I buy in advance? What can I cook in advance? What can I cook on Wednesday, and what must be cooked on Thursday? What is the schedule for the oven? What dishes do I use to serve the food? What plates and silverware will I use?

Centerpiece? Tablecloth? Napkins? Place cards?

God is preparing a feast for us.

I tell you, many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham, Issac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 8:11.

He has been preparing this feast for us, the human race, for a long time, and it promises to be glorious.

And unlike my dining room table, there is plenty of room.

The problem seems to be that some people have made other plans. We’ve had the years when Thanksgiving looked like that. Your sister is visiting her husband’s family; your daughter is traveling with her in-laws; your son is working on Wednesday and Friday and can’t make the trip. Suddenly, your table looks empty.

Then Jesus said to them, “Someone gave a great dinner and invited many. At the time for the dinner, he sent his slave to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is ready now.’ But they all alike began to make excuses.” Luke 14:16-18.

One of those years when no one was able to come, I went to Atlanta to spend Thanksgiving with family there. I even brought the turkey. Our God, through Jesus, does this, too. He comes to us when we are making excuses for why we can’t go to Him.

Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come into you and eat with you, and you with me. Revelation 3:20

He even brings the food. He wants to have this great feast with us.

He modeled it in Mosaic law.

Speak to the people of Israel saying, on the fifteenth day of this seventh month and for seven days is the Feast of Booths to the Lord.  You shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It is a statute throughout your generations.” Leviticus 23: 34,41.

Not just a feast on one day, but a feast for seven days. A HUGE feast – for everyone.

God gave David a vision of a feast with his enemies present, where they would have to acknowledge God’s blessing of his life. (Psalm 23:5).

And Jesus loved to feast. With sinners, which is a good thing since we are all sinners.

When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” When Jesus heard this, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.” Mark 2:16-17.

So, as I am preparing my feast for my family, I remember that God is preparing a feast for mankind and inviting all the sinners to feast with him. What a glorious feast that will be!

And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are true words of God.” Revelation 19:9.

Enjoy the feast!

Betsy