Ask anyone who has eaten a meal at our house and they will tell you the same thing: there always seems to be room for one more, even when the table is already crowded. This is not an accident, and it is not really about the food.
It started early in our marriage, when Daniel and I decided our home would not be a fortress we retreated to but a table we kept extending. Some of our best friendships, and some of our children’s best memories, came from a Sunday when we invited someone who otherwise would have eaten alone.
The parable in Luke 14 ends with a banquet host sending his servants out to the highways and hedges, compelling people to come in and fill the empty seats. That is not subtle imagery. The kingdom of God, apparently, has a habit of pulling up extra chairs.
We are not always graceful about it — sometimes dinner is chaos, sometimes I have not planned enough food and we stretch what we have. But I would rather have a slightly-too-full table than a perfectly calm, empty one.