I was sitting beside the student section at a high school football game the other night. A crowd of rowdy boys sat together, laughing and making an obnoxious racket, as rowdy boys do. Part way through the game, two of their peers showed up. They walked onto the bleachers, scanned the crowd of students, and found their crowd of rowdy friends. They walked closer with smiles on their faces and as they approached to join someone said, “There’s no room for you here.”
Being interpreted, “You’re not important enough for us to scoot over and make room.”
I’ve been thinking a lot about the different tables we sit at and how we choose where we sit and which people we want to sit with. Who we sit with says a lot about who we are and yet maybe it doesn’t really have to, if we don’t allow the people around us to define who we are.
I’ve been on nearly every angle of this, I like to think. I’ve been the so-called outcast, the one who didn’t have another table to join. I’ve been the person someone scooted over to make room for. I’ve been the one saying, “There’s no room for you here.” And I’ve been the one scooting over to make more room for someone else.
Sometimes I’ve been surprised when someone scooted over for me because I can’t say I would have been as kind they. Other times, I’ve been confused why someone didn’t make room when I thought I belonged at their table.
I’m grateful for the tables I’ve been privileged to sit at, whether I belonged or whether I didn’t. I’m grateful for the times I made room for someone else to join and I’m horrified I’ve ever uttered the words, “There’s no room.”
There wasn’t room in the inn either when Jesus needed a place to be born into the world. Maybe He felt like “there was no room” for Him in the whole world until they found the cave and the manger. I can’t help but wonder what my response would be if Mary showed up on my front porch tonight and rang the doorbell, asking for a place to lay her head.
It’s terrifying to think I might actually turn Jesus away from my doorstep simply because I’m not willing to scoot over and make a little room around my table.
Who’s at your table with you? Is there someone you could scoot over for?
colliding with destiny 