The Man at Table 5

I often talk about my three youngest kids because of their everyday hillarity. However, my teenager is equally hillarious, if not more. Brendan is one of the greatest gifts that God has given me in this life, and I've had him for fifteen years. I think it's pretty cool how through the gift of children, God gives us the desires of our heart--yet far more than we'd ever dream of or desire.

Four children, all different yet each one fits nicely into the spaces of my heart, like fingers to a glove.

Brendan's not cool by society's standards, but he'd never be considered a geek either. He's just middle of the road, always has been and is very content to keep it that way. He's brilliant, self taught in reading by the age of three with a photographic memory that blows us away. He's never used his smarts to stand out in a crowd where in his shoes I might have been tempted to.

I remember sitting by him at times in mom/kid groups where tough questions were asked, and I knew that he knew the answers. "Lift your hand, Brendan." I'd whisper, urging him to speak out. Kids would hop up and down with their hands in the air, but he was content to sit back and watch the light shine on the other children around him.

The other day as the two of us sat in the car waiting for the other three to tumble out of school, we got to laughing and talking about the little things in life. Brendan, being aware that he's somewhere between "Cool and uncool" decided to explain it to me. "I'm an extra," he said.

"'Kay, what?" I was confused.

"An extra," he confirmed, with a smile that told me he was more than comfortable in his skin. "Don't you ever watch sit-coms? You always have the popular kids, and you have the geeks--but I'm the kid at table five who orders the fries." Leaning back in his seat, he folded his hands behind his neck, before adding, "Nobody sees him, and nobody seems to notice he's there. He just does his job and goes home--that's me."

Yep, that's him--wise and whacky and comfortable being second in line.

When I was expecting this child, I hoped for the star of the show, the one who triggers the laugh track and gets fan mail by the minute. But God showed me a better way by giving me the boy at table five with the fries, the one who is willing to sit in the shadows while the light shines on the others.

All week, I was reminded of his comment. Smirking and laughing at his goofy ability to come up with this stuff, I got to thinking. His quirky way of handling life reminded me of the spiritual.

The greatest role cast for the man at table five was none other than our Lord Jesus Christ. A stumbling block to the Jews. They had hoped for a King who would conquer their oppressors on earth, but what they found was a gentle servant born in a manger who came to offer salvation to all.

It's pretty cool how through the gift of His Son, God gave us the desire of our heart--yet far more than we'd ever dream of or desire. God showed us a better way by giving us the man who sat alone at table five--one who was willing to die in the shadows while the light shone on us.

"He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not." ~ Isaiah 53:3