“I will sit at the table You’ve prepared for me,
Here I am safe from the enemy.
I will feast on Your love and Your mercy,
For death has lost its hold on me.”
“You Restore My Soul” from the album Strength & Beauty

Something exciting happened to our family in June. We moved into a new house. Something even more exciting happened two months later. We had a baby! Our little doll Jessie Grace Pearsons came into our lives, and what a gift she has been!

In between moving into our new house and having a baby, I experienced extreme symptoms of a condition that many women develop right before giving birth, a serious condition called “NESTING.” To some men this may seem like a serious disease, but to a pregnant woman, it is only a case of rushing hormones that kick in as a sign the baby is coming very, very soon. The only cure for this condition is to spend night and day getting the house ready.

In my case, every detail had to be just perfect for our little princess. From the kitchen to the nursery, it all had to be cleaned and decorated. I guess I expected baby Jessie to be carried into our house for the first time and exclaim, “Wow Mom, what an amazing coffee table display!” I even made Jeremy build a new mantle for our fireplace. I look back now and realize I may have gone a little overboard.

My favorite nesting project was the farmhouse table that we designed and had a friend build for us. It turned out super cool, distressed just enough to look aged but completely cozy, with a rustic brown stain and dark wax to give it the perfect matte finish. He built a brown bench for one side of the table, and we found five mismatched chairs to fill in the rest of the seat spaces. It turned out just the way I wanted.

There’s just something about a good table. In the end, I realized the reason I cared so much about getting the table just right didn’t have as much to do with the table itself but more with what the table represented. This table would become a place where my family and friends would experience LOVE.

Song of Solomon 2:4 says, “He brought me to His banqueting table, and His banner over me was love.” Can you imagine being personally invited to dine at the King’s table? To be personally escorted by Him and to sit beside Him, to have one-on-one conversation with Him, and then to feast on a meal prepared by Him? This is what Jesus did for you. He reached out to you while you were still a stranger in sin, and He invited you into His home. By His blood, He gave you boldness to come on in. And then to finish things off, through His great love, He seated you at His table in heavenly places.

At His table there is always good conversation, good food, and a lot of laughter. It’s a place where you enjoy Him and He enjoys you. Some people have a bad opinion of God, and they see Him as hard and harsh. But nothing could be further from the truth. He’s not angry with you, He’s enamored by you. When you walk into a room, He smiles and He looks at you with love. Because of Jesus, He will never hold your sin over your head. HIS BANNER OVER YOU IS LOVE!

Jesus loves you so much that He’ll never just serve you cold leftovers from someone else’s plate. He’s always preparing a unique menu just for you, using all the freshest and the finest ingredients. And when you taste it, you will see that He is a GOOD cook! There is never a shortage at His table. He always serves all you can eat until you are so full you have more than enough for all of your neighbors. Psalm 23:5 says, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; MY CUP RUNS OVER.”

At His table you’ll find a bottomless bowl of healing that lasts a lifetime. And make sure to drink from the pitcher of mercy that never runs dry. Jeremy and I have made it a priority in our house to feed on His faithfulness by taking communion together. At the slightest prompting, we gather whatever elements we can find, grab hands, and meet with Jesus around His communion table. We stare into His face and literally feast on His body broken for us and His blood spilled for us. We see Him beaten so that we could be made whole.

Not long ago, our little boy, Justus, started to run a fever so high that for the first time in his life he put himself to bed. We gathered together and began to take communion over him. As we met with Jesus, His sweet presence filled our house. We knew that He had been with us, and we were confident He was working in our little boy. The next morning Justus woke up perfectly fine, no sign of a fever! The amazing thing was we found out a week later that Justus had been exposed to a highly contagious illness that broke out in our community. Every person who had the virus started out with a high fever like Justus did. This could have been serious for us since we had a brand-new baby at home. But just one meal with Jesus changed everything!

This meal becomes a covenant exchange where you get what you don’t deserve. He takes your sin and gives you grace. He takes your sickness and gives you life. Jesus said, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20). There is nothing like having dinner with Jesus.

When He invites you over for dinner, you’ll never be left out or forced to sit at the kiddy table. You’re royalty now, and you can be confident that He’ll never leave you standing but will always require you to sit. To be seated in heavenly places is to be at rest in Him. To be at rest in Him is to know He is the Head of the table, Host of this party, and He will satisfy your mouth with good things! He is preparing a perfect place for you in this life on earth as well as in heaven. He’s been working on a place for you for thousands of years! Apparently I’m not the only one with nesting issues.