Resetting the Table

We watch as the dessert of the feast comes through the kitchen door. New plates and silverware are being set on the table. And we’re all helping now. That’s because we’re part of the household — even if we still feel like guests. We’re in. We’re welcome.

We’ve received the grace of belonging, even if it’s an experience we’re just beginning to accept. We've eaten the meal with all the rest who were invited.

This is the experience of grace. Grace reveals that we are now able to communicate more freely with the host of the gathering — the cook, the owner of the house, the one who invited us. We’ve reached the point in the feast where we get to speak freely. To share what we think. To say how we feel. Grace is the restoration of communion — that deep level of communication that allows our host to speak into why we are received. How deeply He loves us. Grace reveals that we’re not guests. We’re children of the household. We belong here.

This is what Christmas begins, as Advent comes to its close. It reveals that we are forgiven — that we are able to communicate with God again. Sin isn’t about breaking rules. Sin is the deeper effect of our actions, our choices, our bargains with surviving. Sin is the breaking of relationship — with God, with others, with ourselves. When we are forgiven — truly forgiven — we live in the profound experience of being able to hear God again.

If a child walks away from home and never calls, never writes, they are separated from the one who loves them best. Isaiah says that our iniquities separate us, that our sins hide God’s face from us — not because God stops loving, but because sin damages our ability to hear. It is the static on the line. The distance in the heart. The exile of the soul. (Isaiah 59:2)

And yet, even in exile, God’s love does not withdraw. Jeremiah reveals a Father whose heart is shattered, who remembers His people with aching tenderness. He tells them, “Mark the way you go,” so that even as they walk away, they will know how to come home again. (Jeremiah 31:20–21) The Father never stops watching the road.

Jesus gives us the clearest picture of this in the story of the high-living son. While he was still a long way off, the father saw him — saw him because he had never stopped looking — and ran to him with compassion. (Luke 15:20) Grace does not wait for us to close the distance. Grace runs to us. And when grace reaches us, something awakens. The silence breaks. The line reconnects. We begin to hear again. As Jesus said, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” (John 10:27) Restored communication is the fruit of restored relationship.

Advent... the pathway home

          This is the grace that feeds our souls in these last days of Advent — when the dessert is coming through the door. It is the assurance that the work has been done.

The connection repaired. The love renewed. As we walk toward the sunrise of Christmas, we do so as people who can hear again. People who are guided again.

People who know — deep in the marrow — that we are cherished.