Gathering around the Table this Day

I gathered around the table twice today. Jesus invited me. I felt welcomed and compelled to share his body and blood with those around me. First I gathered with my middle school girls from Breakthrough and the intern who lead with me this weekend. I wanted to hand each of them the body and blood and Christ. I wanted to look them in the eyes and tell them, "This is the body of Christ given for you." and "This is the blood of Jesus. It connects us and washes us." The girls looked me in the eye as I spoke these words. The perfect way to end the weekend.
Tonight at small group I felt the same compulsion but about our smallest member. Ethan just turned one on Thursday and we love having him at small group. For so long he has been in the middle of our circle. We have loved his baby sounds and now his squeals of delight. As soon as we started to get out everything for communion I started thinking about how I would love to serve communion to Ethan because he is so much a part of the body of Christ that meets in that circle every Sunday night. We had all been served the body of Christ and Ethan started looking around like he knew that we were eating something and he started smacking his lips. I took him a piece of the body. I held it out in my hand and said, "Ethan, this is the body of Christ given for you." He looked me in the eye and took in what I was saying, took the bread from my hand and ate it and then raised his hand straight in the air and let out a raucous squeal. What a great way to feel after taking the body of Christ. So sweet and so real.
Those were the perfect moments from my day.