Round Table

Round Table

Growing up in a family of eight children presented a number of logistical problems for my parents. One of the biggest was how do you get that many bodies around the kitchen table? Eight kids, two parents and one grandma demands a large table. We had a big kitchen so a round table with several leafs to enlarge the seating capacity was the answer.

One of my favorite childhood memories is all of us sitting around the table for an evening meal. The combination of high chairs, booster seats and adult chairs filled all the available space on the circumference of the table. Because it was so large, it was hard to reach for the butter, salad dressing or the salt and pepper. Everything needed to start eating was on the opposite side of the table and unreachable. Asking a sibling to pass “the whatever” was a lot like asking them to quite eating altogether.

Then came the Lazy Susan. This modern marvel bypassed the moodiness of family and delivered the goods. A Lazy Susan is a round piece of wood on a stand that rotates on ball bearings and holds condiments for a meal. When that appeared on our kitchen table, life got a lot easier. Now I didn’t have to ask someone to pass the salt. Also, I had a toy to spin while waiting for supper to be served.

Those days of the round table with our family sitting around it are long gone. All that is left are scattered memories of growing up in a large family. It is hard to find a round table any more, at least one that would sit eleven people. Once in a while I see a Lazy Susan sitting atop someone’s kitchen table with a floral decoration on it. Then all those memories come flooding back.

The Bible says: “Your wife will bear children as a vine bears grapes, your household lush as a vineyard, the children around your table as fresh and promising as young olive shoots. Stand in awe of God’s Yes. Oh, how he blesses the one who fears God!”

Little did I know how blessed I was.