Reserved For Him

Life gets crowded fast, doesn’t it? Stores are crowded, schedules are crowded, and our hearts are crowded. Between what we need to do and what we want to do, what we really should do and what we are intending to do… it’s a packed house. Obligations constantly collide with Desires, Minor Inconveniences elbow in and trample right over Intentions.

A venue at full capacity often mirrors our lives. No margin, no wiggle room. Just absolutely full.

In such a crowded culture, we appreciate the value of a reserved seat.

We have them at our most important occasions. We set boundary lines, sometimes literally, to make sure certain people are guaranteed a spot in the crowd. At weddings, graduations, and funerals you’ll always find seats that have been reserved. These are for the people that simply must be there. They are the most necessary or the most wanted. The rest of the crowd will be first come, first served. The overflow may leave some people with a bad seat or none at all. Others may even be turned away at the door.

But in the reserved seating, there is no mad dash to find a place. It is a place of intentionality. The size of the crowd will not create less space for the reserved seating. It is cemented in its priority. The crowd will squeeze in where it can and leave where it cannot around the reserved seating, and not the other way around.

God has singled out a day (or a table, if you will) in the midst of our crowded week and reserved it for Himself. It is a day of reflection and dependence, a time for worship of Him and rest in Him. God laid His finger on the first day of our week and declared, “That’s mine.”

Whether we honor that is entirely up to us individually. Every heart has its reserved seating. The most important one in the room gets it. Actually, whoever is esteemed the most important person in the room gets it.

If our productivity or our pleasure has robbed Him of His day, then we have robbed Him of the place He asked for. He is left standing with no more priority than paying bills and mowing the lawn and getting an oil change.

What a tragedy it would be for a nail scarred Savior to be left without a seat.

He has asked us for a day. He has reserved it for Himself. It is our duty, our honor, and our joy to make sure He gets it.