Feast

Feasting, by definition, is to eat in celebration; to overwhelm the senses with the richness of the offerings. Perhaps celebration of someone or a milestone event? Certainly a feast uses food to mark an occasion and elevate the mood + ambiance and create something memorable. I love this word, it conjures feelings of warmth + joy, something bubbly to drink and friends to enjoy spending time with, celebratory atmosphere and food dialed up a notch. Creating food for a feast is my favorite style, allowance to focus on presentation + fussy details is so satisfying to me. At the beginning of this year I felt like God handed me this word in a personalized way. A word I dearly love full of a promise that this will be a year to focus on joining in the feast….not necessarily creating the feast. I tend to be much more comfortable behind the scenes and the difference in sitting at the table and setting the table made me feel instantly exposed. How often in my life have I held myself back, fussing over details and busy planning, orchestrating but not partaking? How often have I checked out rather than be present. The feast bids us come, just as we are and just as it is to seek enjoyment in the given moment. My eyes have opened to all the places a feast has been present and I may have not recognized the importance of the moment and my own necessity in partaking.

Charlotte Mason extols that a homeschool mom is to ‘lay the feast’ before her students. This means gathering a beautiful, enticing arrangement of quality thoughts, books, artists and composers and making it accessible and available for her student to indulge in. This process of curating quality works of depth and loveliness has a stimulating effect on the homeschool mom who engages her heart in this practice. You cannot lay the feast before your children and not be transformed yourself by masters in their craft, composers with divine inspiration, powerful and thought provoking words that draw the heart to loveliness and the intellect to wonder. This is the design of the feast and the beautiful outworking of the mind and spirit that grows in goodness and beauty and truth.

My mind toys with both these applications of feast. What would it mean to combine both the physical aspect of feasting at the table with the calling to train my children’s appetites toward large thoughts and deep conversations, especially critical as the world implodes around us. As divisive lines narrow and seek to swallow us whole is it responsible even to pull out a chair and choose to feast? I contend it is. It is the most important thing that can be determined if God is calling you to the table. The feast has nourishing capacities that extend past our physical bodies; humility, remembrance, joy. This year beckons as a gift to enjoy the abundance of God’s provision - His feast.