The Wedding

Years ago, at our church in North Carolina, my husband and I led a small group, and  George and Mickey were part of our group.  We'd known them about a year and a half when we received an invitation to their daughter's wedding.  

At that time, our three sons were ages 12, 9, and 2.  I told Mickey that we really couldn't come. Her response was, "Please come.  Don't worry; bring the kids."  So we did.

After the ceremony, we went to the reception and meal, and the five of us sat way in the back, in that big banquet room.

Eventually, the wedding party arrived up front, and we saw them visiting tables and greeting guests.  George and Mickey looked around a bit, stopped at a couple of tables, and then they started walking...and walking...and walking...and I realized they were heading towards us.  

When they got to our table, Mickey said, "We think of you as family. Come and sit up front."  And Joe and I, with kids in tow, followed the bride's parents past all those other people, up front, to the head tables.
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I love remembering this story and not because we were honored; but because Jesus told this parable...and it happened to me!

“When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you.  Luke 14:8-10

This parable is about humility - humbling yourself to the point of not considering yourself at all.  I struggle with that, often feeling as if I don't belong.  Or even feeling proud of how humble I can be.

But it's not about me.  The truth is...Jesus humbled Himself on the cross - the One who matters most, made Himself nothing. 

...who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Philippians 2:6-8

And it doesn't matter where we sit in church on Sunday.  Each week, all of God's people are brought forward...to the head table, The Lord's Table.  We all belong, His guests, His family.

In life, we don't need other people to tell us we're special.  We already are - our worth is in Christ.  And we're free to sit in the back for awhile, forever...be nothing, not noticed...because of Jesus.

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. 1 John 3:1