by Rev Don Schatz

God as Host.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“You prepare a table before me….”
Psalm 23:5a, New International Version

The ladies of our congregation prepare for Advent, and Christmas, each November with an evening together.  Advent By Candlelight is a wonderful event for fellowship, friendship, devotion, song, and focus. The focus is on the Coming Christ.  Ladies sign up to host a table, and they decorate that table for the dessert that accompanies the evening.

Food and feasting are rich images in Scripture.  The most important feasts are prepared by the Lord.  They are prepared for us.  The Lord sets the table with grace and faith, and we dine on the rich blessing of forgiveness, salvation, hope, adoption, and life.  All of it, and so much more, in Jesus.

God prepares the feast of Life in Jesus for you again today.  Come, all who are hungry. Eat.  Come, all who are thirsty. Drink.  Eat and be full.  Drink and be satisfied.  If you are hungry and thirsty today, come and eat, and drink, of the Lord.

I also encourage you to see yourself as one whom the Lord has prepared as a feast for others today.  We serve what the Lord serves, Jesus.  In your life, the Lord has prepared one who feasts on the Word, who is enriched by the Eucharist, and who walks in Baptismal grace.  You have so much to give to those who occupy your life.  You have everything to give, you have Jesus.

As we live out the Christ-life, we offer the people in our lives the rich feast of the Lord’s own preparation.  We set the table with grace, with a merciful heart, with a forgiving spirit, and with God’s own love.  Determined to live in and by the Spirit, we offer ourselves to the world.

Walk boldly today.  Your life is at once the recipient of the Lord’s awesome abundance, and the table he has prepared for others to see the bounty, the glory, and the passionate compassion of our God.  Enjoy the feast.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, CO