A Banquet Beckons – Part 1

Let’s go shopping! When given that invitation, what image enters your mind? A large shopping mall? A quaint boutique or eclectic fashion mart? Are you seeking bargains at a yard sale? Or is a flea market more your style?

Today, especially in the United States, our shopping opportunities are limitless. In spite of all these choices, my favorite shopping spree is the open-air farmer’s market. Perhaps that exposes my farm-girl roots, but I love to stroll through the maze of booths boasting their field-fresh produce. I truly feel close to God’s creation and the growers who share their harvest.

Wouldn’t it be grand if the indoor shopping malls fused this wholesome food idea into their food courts? Can you envision it? Instead of fast-food cubicles surrounding noisy eating areas, the shopping mall would provide a true dining experience in an environment of respite. Busy shoppers could enter for an interval of calm and nutritional nourishment.

That’s the picture my mind creates when I think of Heaven’s Storehouse. If there were such a heavenly place on this earth, shoppers would discover products or services to enhance, empower, embellish, or even entertain––not only in the material realm, but in their physical, spiritual, and intellectual beings as well. This great dining hall would hold beautifully adorned and expansive tables laden with natural, wholesome foods from God’s garden––true, pure, and delicious nourishment. The tantalizing aroma from fresh foods, warm-from-the-oven breads, savory spices, colorful fruits, and garden produce would greet all who enter. There would be no man-made imitation foods on this table! The precious time and effort that produced this lavish feast would not go unnoticed. All who enter would sense a serene comfort.

Our Creator Father has indeed invited us to dine at His table in the midst of life’s full and hectic schedules. I’m reminded and reassured of this when I read Isaiah 25:6: “On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich foods for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine––the best of meats and the finest of wines” (NIV).

Come back next week to find out how to “set your table” to nourish your family.