Spoken 6: Come, Sit Here

One of my favorite things in the world is decorating tables for dinner parties.  I feel like it's setting the scene for your guests to feel treasured.  Come, sit here.  Join me.  Feel wrapped up in this delightful time together.  But, without people, it's unfulfilled.  No guests.  Empty chairs.  The decor falls flat.  It's like the table decor is only fulfilled when there is laughter and intimate talk, when there are hearts and minds arching over the decor, connecting.

Come, sit here.  Join me.

funfixins.com

Sometimes that's the loneliest time for single women.  You love your girlfriends.  You are invested in their kids.  You consider their husbands as brothers.  You really do care for what's going on in their mother/wife worlds.  And you are happy that they are getting to have lunch With The Girls and With No Kids.  And you would give your right arm to be in their shoes.  And somehow you don't fit.

Or, you go to a couples' dinner.  Maybe there's the other single woman there.  Or a single guy who you are not attracted to... or worse yet, one who is not attracted to you.  Or there's just an odd number.  And you are thankful the husbands speak brotherly advice into your life about fixing your car or your patio door.  And maybe they will volunteer to do it.  And it's ok.  It's really ok.

But you wish when you walked into a room, there was someone there that you knew you could saddle up to.  You hate walking in and thinking, who should I sit by?  Where should I sit?

If only someone were waiting there and would put his arm around you when you got close.

If only you could walk in and belong to someone.

paratithēmi

It's this word of presentation.  Who gives this woman to be this man's wife?  Sliding a ring on a finger.  I do.  Like you've been waiting to give this - to get this - all your life.  Here you go.  It's yours to keep.  I'm yours to keep.  Forever.

It's words of trust.  Words of hope.  Words of complete confidence.

But, if we say it - if we paratithēmi ourselves to any man on earth, if we give ourselves to any man on earth, we have to know that he will let us down.

So, here goes the "Give yourself to God" speech you knew was coming.  But, it's not a singleness speech.  It's not a get-over-it speech.  It is our only hope.  It might not make luncheons with married friends easier, or the dinner parties less awkward.

But it might change how you enter a room.

Where you sit.  Who you sit by.  If this party/church service/event isn't about you - if it's not about how you feel - but it's about being committed to the Lord, and how He is working in and through you... then, can you see that hurting woman who needs a hug?  Maybe she just found pornography this morning and can't decide if she'd rather it be her son's or her husband's.  Maybe she started her period a few minutes ago, when she was just going to tell her husband she was pregnant tomorrow on Father's day.  And maybe she would never ever tell you these things - but you can see it in her eyes.

Maybe walking in and saying, God, I paratithēmi my eyes to you - my heart to you.  I want to be your salt and light.  Let me walk beside what You want to do and say in these people's lives...  maybe there's a little dying to self that needs to take place.  Maybe there's looking beyond your own broken heart and seeing others' deep need for a love that is perfect and whole and eternal.

Jesus said it.

On the cross.

Father, into your hands I paratithēmi my spirit.