Hymn: “Brethren, We Have Met to Worship” – George Atkins
Tune: HOLY MANNA
Then he’ll call us
home to heaven. At his table we’ll sit down.
Christ will gird
himself and serve us with sweet manna all around.
We’re back to one of those ‘picture this’ hymn-lines, so go
into your Hollywood director mode and visualize the Lord of all the universe in
his waiter’s uniform.. maybe an apron.. racing from table to table being sure
everyone is served.
I learned many good lessons from my parents, but one was to
always be especially nice to the people who work in what we have dubbed the service industry. The most common of these
are waiters and waitresses.
Nowadays, most of us frequent many restaurants during the
course of a month, but my family seldom went out to eat when I was a child. It
was so rare that I remember the first time we went to a sit-down restaurant –
it was called the Hwy. 441 Restaurant in the heart of Pigeon Forge. It’s hard
to believe that in the early fifties, it was one of only a handful of
restaurants on the Branson-like strip which is now home to outlet malls and the
entrance to Dollywood! George and Helen Worsham (friends of ours from church) owned
and ran the restaurant; they lived upstairs above it. It was such a special
event that I remember I wore a short-sleeved white shirt and a clip-on tie!
From Hedy and Raymond I learned a very good lesson about
being extra nice to wait-staff in any establishment, especially restaurants.
After all, kindness costs nothing… and takes a lot less energy than
complaining!
Back to our Hollywood visualization: Here we sit as special
invited guests at the table of our Lord; and instead of sitting at the head of
table, he is carrying trays of sumptuous food… albeit manna… keeping our tea
glasses filled, and being sure we are enjoying the event.
If I truly want to be Christ-like, I need to play this
film-clip over and over in my head. I need to stop thinking of myself as
entitled to sit and be served… and help serve everybody else. Perhaps churches
need to develop a servant industry!...
and not just at Wednesday night fellowship dinners!
The next time you are seated in your local restaurant, thank
the host/hostess – and don’t always ask if they could seat you at another
table. Be really nice to the person who brings the chips and salsa to the
table. Be especially nice to the waiter/waitress. Speak a kind word of thanks
to everybody in the place who serves you… even the cashier! We all know it is
not easy work, but we also realize it is often a thankless job. We can change
that by our realization that they may truly be those angels unawares that are
mentioned in Hebrews 13:2. And it won’t hurt to add to the soundtrack of this
clip Jesus’ whispering in the background, “If
you do it to the least of these, you do it to me.”
Wonderful!
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