Restoration

A few years ago, my kids and I were learning about the Japanese internment camps in the USA during WWII. These camps had many affects on those involved. Some good. Most not so good. But one of the most signifcant results from these camps was the break down of the family unit. What caused this breakdown? The dining hall. You see, the family dinner table is a place where the family connects. Everyone in the family is together at the same time. They commune and communicate. They are bound together during these times of sharing. But with the dining hall style meals in the internment camps, children often went to eat with their friends. Likewise, women sought out the company of other women and men congregated together. Without that time to connect as a family, the family unit began to fall apart. After four years in these camps, families did not leave the same as they came in. This might not seem significant to most families. However, breakdown of the family unit has many consequences in the lives and futures of the children. It affects who they are and who they will become.

As I think about this off and on over the past year or so, I realized that we are becoming more and more like the Japanese families, only we are doing it by choice. How many families eat dinner on trays around the TV, or grab something quick in between activity after activity. Or, like us, come up with some other excuse not to eat together as a family. Our excuse-no dining room table. Our kitchen table is a two seater, making it difficult to dine with our family of 6. We have a dining room table, but when we moved to this house three years ago, we had to leave the dining room behind. Our dining room table is now pushed against the wall in the storage/utility/dog room and piled up with junk. I missed dining as a family and I certainly didn't want to see the breakdown of our family unit. So, when we got our income tax return back this year, we invested in a portable folding table. Tonight we pulled it out for the first time, set it up in the only free space in the house (in the middle of the living room) and had a family dinner together. It was nice! Really nice! Thank you, Lord, for restoring our family unit. Thank you for our table.