And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.
Luke 14:23 – (KJV)
Sitting down for family dinner is an opportunity to connect or reconnect and for bonding time with one another. It is important for many reasons 1) it allows you, your family time to enjoy the social benefits of eating together, 2) studies say that its healthier to eat at the table. That sitting improves the eating posture and that eating at the table is correlated with a healthier overall weight, 3) sitting at the table places you in the position where decisions are being made.
As there are benefits to gathering together, there are also reasons that gatherings don’t take place. Today’s Scripture Luke 14:14-23 teaches us that there will be many excuses for not gathering at the table, such as tending to your new property, animal, or a new spouse and therefore you can’t come. Good excuses? Perhaps, but no one likes to eat alone. Eating alone is linked to a variety of mental and physical health conditions, depression is one of them. In verse 23 of Luke 14, the lord sent his servant out to compel (force) people to join him for a meal so that his house would be filled. This time he didn’t invite the dignitaries or the well off, he invited those that were downtrodden, maimed, and blind to sit with him for the great supper he had prepared.
Then he turned to the host. “The next time you put on a dinner, don’t just invite your friends and family and rich neighbors, the kind of people who will return the favor. Invite some people who never get invited out, the misfits from the wrong side of the tracks. You’ll be—and experience—a blessing. They won’t be able to return the favor, but the favor will be returned—oh, how it will be returned!—at the resurrection of God’s people.”
Luke 14:12-14 (TM)
