Regina 
For as long as I can remember I have loved setting a table. There’s just something about ironing & folding a linen napkin just so and draping it off of our long white farmhouse table that I love. It’s not like I’m particularly skilled in etiquette, it’s just the simple love of something beautiful. Something carefully put together to delight the eyes as a precursor to what, hopefully, will delight the taste buds. There’s a simple richness added to things when we tend to the details. It might sound like a stretch of a metaphor, but I truly believe the Lord tends to us in this way. He is not content for only the “big” things in our lives to hold purity, rather He seems insistent that everything down to the details of it be beautified and made holy. He not only sets the table in our lives, but He cleans the inside of the cup & dish, so that what appears to be beautiful actually is beautiful in the places that matter most.
Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work. 2 Timothy 2:21
The Lord works by way of the Spirit of Christ in our inner person to set us a certain way, in all of the ways described in His Word. He will not relent until every aspect of us is made like His Son Jesus Christ. We look into the mirror of the Word, and we keep staring at it until by some miracle of the Spirit we are made to look like the image shown to us, until we are made like Christ Jesus. This is not an easy experience. It requires the Lord to pull some things, namely sins, off of us, and replace them with His heart, mind, attitude, perspective, thought on the matter. It feels a whole lot like pruning, a whole lot like we are dying if that’s not too dramatic for you. It seems as though this process as wonderful as it is in one way is altogether too painful in another. For who wants to die to themselves? As recently as today, I spoke with a gentle voice to my children in a moment when my flesh wanted to rant. Indeed, I did let out one single word of harsh tone “stop,” but just after my head bowed to pray, for I knew instantly that this was not the way and the Spirit, I believe, was working in me in those moments to strip away what is natural and set it with something that is more beautiful, gentleness which reflects accurately the Son. The Lord faithfully working inside of us to set us right in the places that most people do not see is without a question sweet mercy and grace to me & to you.
There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. It may seem ok to lose our patience in moments when our patience is legitimately tried. It may seem like a small insignificant thing to harbor in our thoughts jealousy or hatred or unforgiveness, but these things that are so natural to us, are the very things that make us impure. We cannot be content to make the outside of things look good while the inside of our person is destroyed by all manner of impurity. The Lord loves beautiful things we only need to look outside to discover that, but what the Lord finds more beautiful is the inward disposition of ones heart when it is set on Christ.
As we busy ourselves in this season of absolute wonder when so much of our time is spent decking the halls and making every inch of space around us gleam with beauty, let us not neglect the state of our own hearts. Let us insist that Jesus be sought first before all sorts of parties and the innumerable meals we will soon enjoy. Let us find more joy in our heart set beautifully before the Lord than all else.
