I recently read a Facebook post written by my cousin Libby, and I couldn’t resist sharing it here. By the way, Libby’s granddaughters, Lucy and Keira, call her “Bibby.”
Here’s Libby’s post:
“We are playing restaurant, ‘Kibooki’ restaurant. Lucy is the chef and server, Keira is the dessert chef. I say very politely to Lucy, ‘Could you please tell me where your restroom is?’ She gives me a long look and says, ‘Bibby, if you are tired you can just rest at your table.’”
After I read Libby’s post, I laughed and laughed, until I imagined myself in a somewhat similar conversation with the Lord.
I’m seated at a table in a beautiful “restaurant.” The Lord is the Restaurant Owner, the Chef, and the Server. The table is life, and I am so very blessed, beyond blessed, but there are moments when I long to be excused from what is required of me in this very blessed life. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if I didn’t have to clean my father-in-law’s bathroom today? Or wash three loads of clothes? Or attend that committee meeting tonight? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to spend every day doing only what I want to do?
Except, do I really want to excuse myself from that table?
At the “Kibooki Restaurant,” Libby played the part of loyal customer and patron. At the restaurant of life, when I complain incessantly about my duties and chores, there’s nothing loyal about my whining. I’m closing my eyes to God’s blessings.
I love the poetry of the Psalms. In Psalm Twenty-Three, King David tells us that the Lord prepares a table for us, that he anoints our heads, and fills our cups. That he blesses our lives with an overflow of mercy and goodness. Forever.
And I hear the Lord say to me, as Lucy in all her childhood wisdom said to her beloved Grandma, “Bibby, if you need a rest, then just rest at your table.”
Kibooki Restaurant story Copyright, 2014, Elizabeth Bailey. Story used with permission.