Fruit on the Table

March 3, 2008

By Christina Quick

My husband and I purchased our dining set, a simple rectangular table with four chairs, more than a decade ago. Over the years, it has been the gathering place for countless meals. When friends and family members visit, we’ve always managed to squeeze in extra seating — an odd desk chair here, a piano bench there.

When our two children were born, high chairs were added to the furniture arrangement and the table soon became an endless hub of activity.

Around that table we’ve said prayers, played games, decorated Christmas cookies, colored Easter eggs, completed school projects, discussed important events, paid bills and read the Bible.

At one time or another, the table has been smeared with every imaginable substance, from baby food and finger paint to mashed potatoes and modeling clay. I’ve scrubbed at crayon scribbles, stains from markers that bled through thin paper and glue from model car kits.

Hoping to preserve what’s left of the aging dining surface, I’ve encouraged the kids to be careful with their projects. Of course, they still manage to leave their marks from time to time. One day as I was washing the tabletop after a family meal, I spotted a new mark. Someone had been bearing down so hard while writing that impressions had been left in the soft wood. The print was large, obviously the work of a child. I felt a twinge of annoyance.

As I looked closer, I noticed I could actually read the accidental engraving: “patience, kindness, goodness …” They were words from Galatians 5:22,23, a memory verse my 9-year-old daughter was learning: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law” (NIV).

A gentle nudge from God reminded me that a home is about family, not furniture. When our children are grown and their places around the table are empty, all that will matter are the deep impressions we have left on their hearts.

Will they remember our home as a place filled with love, joy, peace, patience and kindness? Will they have gleaned examples of goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control? I pray so.

Tonight I’m pulling up an extra chair for the Holy Spirit. May He always be present at our table and in our lives.

— Christina Quick is staff writer for Today’s Pentecostal Evangel and blogs at Refrigerator Art (cquick.agblogger.org).