~ Intentional Eating\Meeting

Tonight is Family Tea Night in the Forwood household. Once a month, Mother and I host the tribe to tea. They each come at other times but this is different in that we are all together at the same time for the same reason, more or less.
This was Sue’s idea when we moved because we were moving into two houses and she was worried that we might drift when the kids started to fill up their social calendar. So she suggested that the first Thursday of the month we set it aside for a family meal to be missed only “if you are in hospital”. It has been given that level of intentionality to the extent that Sue has missed band practice for the following Sunday and the kids have forgone other activities to be there.
We know ‘humanly speaking” that this is a limited season of intentionality. That it will only be a limited time before the kids find other halves and grow into a new style of relationship but for the time being, until that happens, we plan to keep this time special. Other halves we extend the invitation to as “members of the family” and are sure that when the number of kids becomes six instead of three that we will be able to accommodate them. Sue even has an eye on an eight seat table setting, just for the eventuality.
The reason for this family fact is that it occurred to me this might be a valid analogy for our faith families. We each have the capacity to become intentional in sharing life with brothers and sisters in the faith to build each other up, to support someone in their hour of need, even to simply enjoy the company of one who has similar interests. The post-Pentecost church was famed for its interconnectedness in fact it said that they “held everything in common”, something that they to the extent that if one person had a need and another had abundance then the latter sold to supply the formers need.
This was an intentional arrangement. The reason for this is the tale of Ananias, with Sapphira in Acts 5. The sold a plot of land and He brought some of the money to put into the common wealth. They had agreed to withhold some of the money, so when asked about the money, he suggested that it was the sale price. Ananias died after having been told there was no need for the deceit. Later his wife came in and verified her husband’s version when asked and she also dropped dead. It was an arrangement of intent that was voluntary and what they did wrong was not withhold the money but that they “practised to deceive” and not just fellow believers but Holy Spirit.
God doesn’t work by compulsion. It always was, and will be, up to us to get involved or not. For us to decide to get intentional or just go with the flow. Much as we expect our kids to arrive for Family Tea. if they decide to give it a miss then it will be our loss, so it is with Father. He has things for our good that we will benefit from but ultimately it will be our decision to take these up, or not. It will also be to our detriment if we chose not to.