My Mamaw used to say, “Leave room for dessert,” as Zach and I heaped mounds of fluffy mashed potatoes and brocolli casserole on the last remaining edge of our Thanksgiving Dinner plate. Leave room? I even tried to take little bits of everything, and I still have enough to feed Ethiopia for 2 weeks, as my mother would not let me forget. For one day though, eating yourself until you turned blue in the face seemed okay. Maximum capacity. Fullness.
So I know that it is the middle of summer, and July has relatively nothing to do with Thanksgiving. We are in the midst of picnic and barbeque season, when we also find creative ways of eating too much. So why this lingering memory of a cramped buffet line in Mamaw and Pappy’s old apartment in Arvada?
I guess I’ve been thinking about fullness lately. Being full to the brim, to the edge. I think that I do this with my friends and community. I have said, okay, I will commit to him, him, her, and her…making a checklist of the friends who I would like to stay in touch with. And yet, as much as I want to span the distance of the Atlantic and continue to be a friend to people in Seattle and Denver, sometimes, I realize that it is too much to manage.
Furthermore, maybe it would be healthier if I had enough room in my social circle to allow for new relationships. As I continue to deepen in my understanding of friendship and community, I become more and more convinced that it is necessary to grow and develop in fellowship. On the one hand, this means striving to deepen the relationships that we already have, but on the other hand, it means allowing room for new friendships to take root and grow.
As Carolyn and I have decided to remain in Lauf for another year, we are sad to be away from many our our good friends in the States, but in a way, I will be greatly interested and excited to see how the LORD will reshape our community when we come back.
If new friends can be as good as Mamaw’s blueberry cobbler, then they are most definitely worth saving room for!
