Surviving Holiday Entertaining: Lesson #1

Thanksgiving is a little more than a week away and I have to admit that what is foremost in my mind is all that I have to do between now and then to get dinner for 14 on the table. I mean, much as I enjoy it--or maybe because I enjoy it--I get totally ridiculous about entertaining. I will think about the big day almost every waking moment throughout the next week. I have lists on top of lists: every item of food that will be served, every serving dish that will be needed, the non-perishable grocery list, the perishable grocery list, the cleaning that I will do this weekend, the tablecloths to press, etc. In years past I’ve found it’s pretty hard to keep God at the top of my “to do” list as the holidays approach.

This year, however, I’m going to try harder to keep the holidays in perspective and God as my priority. My plan of attack is to keep in mind some key lessons from two New Testament stories about hosting dinner. You can read about the two dinners in Luke 10:38-42 and John 12:1-3.

The first dinner was at the home of Lazarus, Mary and Martha. Martha scrambled to get dinner ready and, predictably, became frustrated and freaked out by all the preparations. Mary, by contrast, sat at Jesus’ feet and drank in everything He was saying. Jesus commented that Mary had made the better choice that day. The second dinner was nearby at the home of a man called Simon the Leper. John tells us that Lazarus was a guest and Martha served the dinner. During dinner, Mary came in and poured expensive perfume on Jesus, filling the house with the aroma of this lavish act of worship. You can probably draw about a hundred lessons of your own from these two simple stories, but here is one I’m going to try to concentrate on throughout the holiday season:

Even as feast preparations ramp up, keep sitting at the feet of Jesus. I don’t know about you, but when I get busy, daily Bible reading and a quiet prayer time alone with God--in other words, the way we sit at Jesus’ feet today--are two of the first things I jettison in order to make time for all the extra grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning. I don’t do it intentionally--somehow it just happens as other things crowd Jesus out. But I'm going to try to remember that, as between Martha ignoring Jesus so she could prepare dinner and Mary ignoring dinner so she could spend time with Jesus, Jesus said Mary made the better choice.

So, lesson #1: this holiday season I am going find a quiet place to read and pray at least once a day, every day, no matter what. I’m going to make it a priority to keep sitting at the feet of Jesus even if a few little household tasks don’t get done and the cranberry sauce is not homemade this year. No one, except of course Jesus, will notice this little interruption in my usual busyness. And after all, the kids still like Boston Market—-or for that matter, a can of Spaghettios—-better than my most lavish and complicated holiday feast.