A Place at the Table

Season Finale

Hello, and welcome to this special Christmas edition of In the Lighthouse: your safe harbor from the storm. This is Daphne Collins, your Lighthouse Keeper and host for our time together. I’ve been sitting here thinking back to my childhood and all the memorable Christmases spent with my rather large family. There are so many words that come to mind when remembering those cold wintry nights in Ohio. Children have very vivid imaginations, and when nurtured, they grow to produce works of art, excellent storytelling, or musical arrangements that convey the depth of their creativity. Some nights were so cold that my sisters and I used to make up songs about the frost on the windowpanes at night. Nostalgic images come especially to mind during Christmas. They’re brought on by what our senses pick up. These images can be many and varied depending on what sense has been stirred up. Our memories of people, places, and things are very real and personal. They shape the foundation of who we are and how we live in the world. When tragedy strikes and we’re shaken from our moorings, it may take a miracle to restore us to those people, places, and things that bring us back to that place called home. This story is entitled “A Place at the Table,” and provides us with a look into the picture-perfect snow globe of a family in a house that was built for that family. If we look closely, we’ll see that their family picture is not as perfect as it seems from a distance. Perfection will only be achieved when Jesus returns, but for our story, we will look to the hope of this world, a babe, found swaddled and lying in a humble manger in the little town of Bethlehem. That very first Christmas when the herald angels announced his birth to lowly shepherds abiding with their sheep, became the pivotal moment for exactly why the weary world rejoices. Will there be a place for this little child in our world? Will he find a place in your heart? Oh, come. Let us adore him! Okay, let’s get started! 

The Andrews house is a large clapboard farmhouse built by their ancestor during the mid-nineteenth century in Ames, Iowa. The old house, which’s been well maintained through the years, was built solid to withstand many storms blowing across the plains. Every detail in its design and construction was lovingly planned by its builder, Jeremiah Andrews, with his wife at the forefront of his mind. Isabel Andrews agreed to begin the journey westward by wagon, from Ohio, with her husband when he’d purchased 100 acres of rich farmland in Iowa. In 1852, the foundation of the large home was laid and construction began. Generations of the Andrews family have lived and flourished in the big house despite wars, famine, and storms. They survived all manner of conflict from without. Jeremiah and Isabel Andrews believed that God would provide for their health and welfare if they remained faithful to the God who created them. If the family were to stray from the faith and follow their own path, the protection of the family would begin to unravel. When they blessed and moved into their home, Jeremiah and Isabel had no reason to believe that their family would ever be broken by tragedy. But the home was fraught with conflict and separation and silence soon followed. How will the Spirit of Christmas mend what has been broken for many years? The faith that one child can place in the child born to save the world will be the miracle that brings home the prodigal, forgiveness that soothes the pain of a broken heart, and hospitality to the weary traveler because as it was during that first Christmas, there was no room at the inn.

Show Notes

All music themes used in this story are taken from Envato Elements and Pond5.

Opening Theme: Going For Gold

Introductory Theme: Back in the Day by SolidSoundMusic from Pond5

Transition Theme: Kindhearted by SolidSoundMusic from Pond5

Conclusion Theme: A Christmas Visit from Pond5

Transcript of “A Place at the Table” by Daphne Collins

Transcript of “The Greatest Gift ” by Kinney deHamel