When I recently read Heather Holleman’s Elita Brown series for young readers, it reminded me of an article I shared a few years ago. I confessed that I used to feel like God played musical chairs. Do you remember the game? Everyone circles a row of chairs while the music plays, knowing there is one less chair than people. Suddenly, the music stops, and everyone scrambles. Someone always ends up without a seat.
For a long time, that’s how I subconsciously viewed my relationship with God. I knew Jesus and loved Him deeply, but somewhere inside, I wondered if my place with Him was secure. What if I did something wrong? What if I wasn’t paying attention when God turned off the proverbial music? Would someone else get my chair? In His love and goodness, God has replaced that fear with a far more secure picture: My seat at His table isn’t temporary. It’s eternally saved.
A Place at the King’s Table
The story of Mephibosheth in 2 Samuel 9 beautifully illustrates this truth.
Mephibosheth was the grandson of King Saul and the son of David’s beloved friend, Jonathan. Both his grandfather and father had been killed as David became king. Mephibosheth was not only the heir of a doomed dynasty, but also was lame in both feet and living in hiding. By every outward measure, Mephibosheth had reason to fear when King David came looking for him. But David wasn’t searching for him to punish him. He was searching for him to show him kindness.
David had made a covenant with Jonathan, and because of that covenant, Mephibosheth received something he could never have secured for himself: a permanent place at the king’s table. “You shall eat at my table always,” David told him. Always.
Mephibosheth focused on his condition and unworthiness. David saw him through the lens of covenant and grace. Likewise, we can become so focused on our failures, inadequacies, or past that we forget to look into the face of our King. Yet through Jesus’ death and resurrection, God doesn’t merely offer us an occasional invitation to visit His table. He gives us a place in His family.
This Seat’s Saved
That truth came rushing back as I read Heather Holleman’s series, starting with book one, This Seat’s Saved. Heather’s opening story follows Elita Brown as she enters seventh grade and encounters something most of us understand regardless of age: the desire to belong.
I know that when I have faced similar situations in adulthood, the seventh-grader inside me can still wonder: Why can’t I have the friendship she has? How come I didn’t get that opportunity? Am I as successful, attractive, accomplished, or included as her? I clamor for my seat at the table, forgetting that the most secure seat isn’t found there. It is the seat Jesus already purchased for me and where He has already seated me.
Unlike musical chairs, there isn’t a scarcity of chairs at His table. Someone else’s blessing doesn’t threaten ours, another’s gifts don’t diminish our own, and her calling doesn’t negate mine.
By God’s grace, we are all in the same family, and our salvation rests in Christ, not in our ability to win some spiritual version of musical chairs. When we understand that, comparison loses its power. Instead of asking, “Why does she have that seat?” we can ask, “Lord, what have You entrusted to me from the place where You have seated me?” And we can ask His blessings on our tablemates. Moreover, as God heals those tender places in us, we can help the current seventh-grade girls among us.
Help Her Find Her Seat
We really wanted to interview Heather about her Elita Brown series because we thought it could be so helpful to women with middle school girls in their lives. If you are raising, teaching, coaching, mentoring, or loving a girl entering those complicated middle-school years, remember how enormous small things can feel. Maybe you could even consider becoming a “Mrs. Berkley.”
Heather’s character, Mrs. Berkley, beautifully models intergenerational friendship and mentoring. She didn’t dismiss the lunch-table drama Elita faced, and she listened attentively when Elita’s friendships changed. Rather than immediately trying to fix everything, though, Mrs. Berkley helped Elita discover deeper questions, like where does my belonging come from, does another girl’s beauty diminish mine, and is worth found in popularity?
The truth is that while our seventh-grade self might resurface at times, she can actually be a blessing. The rejection that she felt then can help make us more attentive now. The insecurity we carried can make us more compassionate. And the security we have discovered in Christ can become something we pass along. We can reach for the hand of the girl coming behind us and say:
You don’t have to scramble for a chair. Come, sit with me, and let me tell you about the One who has already made a place for you. He has saved my seat, and there is room for you, too.
May you find healing and encouragement in the Elita Brown series. May you know the truth that God has saved an eternal seat for you. And may the young readers in your life find their secure seat, too.
Love and blessings,
Linda
