Cliques, I don’t like them. I avoid them like the plague because at the very core of our being we want to feel accepted, a place where we belong. Being shunned isn’t noticeable at first, but over time it slowly dawns on you that you’re becoming more and more isolated by the cool group. However, let me tell you something. Those who decide who’s in and who’s out have no idea how to build tables.

Feeling shut out by others feels like an arrow in the heart. It’s painful to know you’re not welcome. To sense you’ve been branded ‘the outsider’ hurts, regardless of how many people-pleasing efforts you attempt to fit in with the group. Honestly, it does you no good at all.

I read an Instagram post by Darlene Zschech once. She said that we are“building tables where everyone can find a place to belong.” I couldn’t agree more, Darlene. We all want to find a place to belong. A sense that we are accepted for who we are is really important to our health and well-being. It’s what improves our motivation and happiness in so many different ways. 

Building tables is about letting the outsider know that there is a seat for you.A place where people can take off their don’t-you-know-I-have-it-altogether mask and rest awhile in the comfort of acceptance.    

I believe it’s no coincidence that Jesus’ earthly father was a carpenter. The fact that Jesus would have possibly made all sorts of tables whilst working with Joseph would be a skill Jesus needed to utilise in His calling. Even though He had to lay down His carpentry tools so He could pick up a wooden cross, Jesus continued to build tables right throughout His three-year ministry.  

We see Jesus building a table in John chapter 4. 

As the sun beat down, sweat trickled down her face as she lowered the bucket into the deep, dark hole. The woman needed to do this daily task quickly and quietly. Drawing water rather than drawing attention from the tight-knit group of ladies who kept a running tab on who was acceptable and who was questionable was a journey this woman needed to navigate each time she made her way to the well. The clique had made it painfully clear this woman was deemed unfit to hang around with the elite, established insiders at the well in the cool of day.

The woman in question knew she wasn’t welcome in the group. So, to save herself from their awkward glances and the discomfort of gossip, she decided it would be easier to draw her water at noon. However, this was when the sun was at its hottest. 

In Scripture she’s known as ‘the woman at the well’ and Jesus unexpectedly talks to her. He asked her for a drink, “Would you draw water, and give Me a drink?” (John 4:8). Right there, Jesus starts to build a table out of the cuts of wood made up by this woman’s barriers. Although these barriers were to keep nosy busybodies out of her business, over the years these fragmented bits of wood had become a prison, holding this woman in isolation. 

And yet, Jesus didn’t see an outcast. He didn’t view this woman as questionable; He just saw pieces of wood that had been used to build walls around her heart. Instead of treating her as ‘less than’ Jesus took those same bits of wood and started building a table.  

Why?

So, this woman could feel valued, loved, and accepted regardless of her past mistakes and wrong choices.   

Throughout their conversation in John chapter 4, Jesus revealed to the woman that He knew her big secret; that she had been married five times and the man she was now living with wasn’t her husband. Not something that guaranteed your membership in the ladies luncheons or social gatherings with the high society women’s club. 

I am quite sure, this woman no doubt knew every one of her faults and miserable failures. She would hav felt the sting of her mistakes each and every time she was shunned, ignored or gossiped about by the other women in the village.

But one conversation with Jesus helped her see the table He had built for her. ‘The Anointed is speaking to you. I am the One you have been looking for.’(Verse 26)

Well, well, well. 

If this woman in John Chapter 4 had still been wrapped up in the phoniness and hypocrisy of trying to please the high society well women, who’s attitude matched their starched collars and sixty denier stockings, the woman at the well would have never encountered Jesus because she wouldn’t have needed to draw water in the midday heat. 

Jesus was building this outcast woman a table to sit at, so she felt loved, accepted, and valued.

So, thanks to the mean girls who made her feel like an outsider this woman found herself in the pages of the Bible. This woman, who’s name is not mentioned, has been preached about in hundreds of sermons across the world for centuries. Plus, she was the first woman evangelist because she went and told the whole village about the ‘stranger she had met, and He knew everything about her” (verse 29) 

Hmm, funny how there is not one single mention in the story of the select group of high society women who tagged this outcast woman as a ‘Home Wrecker’. Jesus saw this woman’s pain and the grief she felt over her mistakes. He reached out, built her a table and revealed His identity to her. Amazing!

Want to know something else?

Jesus is still in the business of building tables so people feel like they belong. After all, He is a carpenter. 

Wendy xo