Crowded Table
If you have not heard the song “Crowded Table” by The Highwomen, STOP what you are doing, and listen to it now. If I could describe Fellows with one song, it would be just that.
I first heard this song in January this year and knew that this is what I hoped my year would look like. Little did I know what God had in store for me. I was reminded of this song last month when my 3-year-old host brother Daniel mentioned that we had a full table because all the seats at the table were taken. Heart-melting emoji!!!!! I think I forever want to live with having a full table, and that is exactly how God calls us to live.
The chorus of the song goes…
“I want a house with a crowded table
And a place by the fire for everyone
Let us take on the world while we're young and able
And bring us back together when the day is done”
Being a Fellow is a lot like the chorus of this song. We go out and take on the world and then are brought back together at the end of the day. And that looks different from day to day.
So let this be my love/thank you letter to every table and person I have got to sit around this year! Here are some of my highlights of Fellows this year sitting around a crowded table!
Day 1 of Fellows when we first met each other irl and sat around JD’s table!
Going to the beach and asking so so so many get-to-know-you questions about each other sitting around a large table!
Any and every family dinner we have had at the Marohn's house on Monday nights!
Wednesday night connections and sitting and meeting new people at a different table every week!
Classes on Mondays and sitting around the conference room table, then transitioning it to be our lunch table as well!
The weekend that my parents and friends came and got to sit around my host family’s dinner table (talk about worlds colliding!!)
Fellows-giving with the ladies of 411 and eating such yummy food over candlelight, at a bunch of tables pushed together!
Eating dinner with my mentor Kinsley and her family with super yummy almond cookies!
Tea time and Advent with the Heidengrens sitting around the table and reading the Jesus Storybook Bible and sipping tea!
And there are sooo many more moments that I have not mentioned! Going home for Christmas break, I hope to remember this song and enjoy the time that I get to sit with family members around a table. Whether that looks like eating, playing a board game, or hearing my uncle tell us a crazy story from his childhood!
Lord help us not take for granted gathering around a table with friends and family, but let us not be limited to only a table. Help us take on the world while we are young and able, and bring us back together when the day is done. Amen
Xoxo, Gayle Shear