How to Invite Over Neighbors & Live the Art of Hospitality

Heaven begins at a table.  I don’t think I really fully understood that when Mrs. Vickie Martin carried a pan of steaming warm rolls out of her oven, straight down our back country road, one early fall morning last week, and set the dish down there at the end of our table.  Our little grandboy, who lives in the farmhouse right next to ours, Theodore, just smidge of a glinting notch past his third birthday, he flashes that irresistible grin of his and reaches up with a dimpled finger to swipe a bit of the icing. Vicki only grins right back, and slides the dish closer to little Theo. Make your tables long — so more people know that they belong. Open the gates and lay out more plates. Vicki’s little girl shyly crawls up on a chair by Theodore. Vickie’s gently rocking her baby boy in arms – a baby born the same month as Theodore’s little brother, our second grandboy, Jeremiah. I’m grabbing a stack of plates and can’t stop shaking my head like a fool, smiling at the strange ways of God.  “Your little one’s born the same month as little Jeremiah, and both boys’  dads grew up […]