A Welcoming Table

By Carol Woolum Roberts

On Sunday I received a newsletter called “Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper” written by Maria Shriver.  Sometimes I read it through, sometimes I just glance at it.  I have been using her format to go by in the email newsletter we sent out each Monday called “Monday’s Mulch”.  As I read her newsletter on Sunday, she referred to a song.  She said:

I go to church to be lifted up and to be reminded of Jesus’s teachings, which are to love your neighbor as yourself and to be compassionate, loving, kind, and forgiving. Those are the qualities that I’m hoping will be on full display at my Thanksgiving table this year and throughout this holiday season. One of my favorite songs is the Idina Menzel song “At This Table.” The lyrics are so moving. I believe the song beautifully describes the kind of table we can each set over the days and weeks to come. It can be a table where all is forgiven. A table where all are welcome. A table where anyone can pull up a chair and feel welcome. That is what each of us can do this coming week. Practice inclusion, acceptance, and forgiveness.

After reading this about this song that I had never heard of, I looked it up on You Tube and listened.  It is written by Jonas Myrin and Idina Menzel,  and performed by Idina Menzel, and was a song on her Christmas album that came out in 2019.  As I listened to the song and read the lyrics, tears came to my eyes.  This is what I want to happen at the table in my home. 

I want a table where everyone is welcome.  I want a table where people are seen and included and respected.  Where they feel they matter to the conversation.  Where they feel safe to join in the conversation and speak what is on their mind.  Where different opinions are met with a listening ear and an open heart.

There is forgiveness.  People can come to the table just as they are.

At our table I hope to have no judgement, and where mercy has a seat.  We are all welcome and people feel comfortable and loved.  And they are willing to come and bring their heart to share with others.

I want everyone to feel welcome at our table.  I want everyone to feel cared for at our table.  I want everyone to feel they matter when they come and pull up a chair at our table.

And this isn’t just at Thanksgiving.  This is each time we gather together for our weekly family dinners.  This is each time we gather together for birthday celebrations.  When friends come around our table, I want them to feel they matter.  When strangers come around the table, I want them to feel they matter.

Our table in our dining room has been with us now for 21 years.  I love it when people sit around the table and share themselves.  Because people need to feel they matter.  They need to feel they are loved. They need to feel loved for who they truly are, and not feel like they need to put on an act to belong.

Have I always been successful at doing this over the past 21 years around this table?  Sadly, no.  I know there have been times that I have been judgmental.  I have not shown mercy.  I have probably made people feel small, worthless, silenced them, ignored them. 

But fortunately, as people, we grow.  We change.  We transform.  God has given me the capacity to love more as He wants me to love.  To love my neighbor as myself.  To be more welcoming, more caring.  To have a bigger heart to share at the table.

As you gather around the table today on this day of Thanksgiving, look around and stop and care for those at the table.  Welcome those at the table.  Listen to those at the table.  When you speak your mind, realize not everyone may agree, but that is okay.  Come to the table with no grudges, no judgments, no fear.

Come as you are, and welcome others to pull up a chair.

Please take a moment and listen to and watch “At This Table” here.