Mommy, when we get to heaven, I will be able to eat everything on the table,” an earnest 4-year-old voice broke into my concentration. Recent blood tests had revealed that our daughter had 19 food sensitivities, and all the old favorites were suddenly off the menu. Gluten and gluten-containing grains, legumes, nuts, dairy, eggs, and rice were all unfriendly to her body, and we began the odyssey of discovering new foods and creating new recipes to be able to feed our child.

The “new normal” left us, as it were, on foreign soil. All the traditional “Adventist” foods were out the door. All the quick-to-grab meals were gone. No more samples at the store or food at friends’ houses. Directions for babysitters had to be explicit.

Then there were the questions coming at us from every direction. And the advice; everyone had advice. Some of it was valuable; other times, when someone who clearly had no experience felt a need to tell me how to feed my child, it was difficult to be gracious.

One week our daughter’s Sabbath school teacher announced that she and the other class leaders would be bringing pumpkin pie for all the children the following Sabbath. I tried to warn the teacher of my child’s sensitivities, but she didn’t really hear me. So during that week my 4-year-old and I practiced saying, “No, thank you.” We said it quietly, we sang it, and at times we shouted it at each other in cheerleader fashion. At the end of her Sabbath school class the teacher came to me, astonished that my little girl did not want any pie. This time she heard me as I explained what I had tried to tell her the week before. She began to understand the “new” life we were dealing with every day.

In time, further blood testing showed that father and brother had many food sensitivities as well.

Through the years the children grew physically and spiritually. They watched as each Communion came and went. They questioned, as each child does, what the emblems represent. And they both realized, “I can’t eat that.”

Baking for the Bigger Table

In 2010 both children decided to be baptized—an incredibly high moment for our family, but one that left me scrambling to create a Communion cracker that would be safe for them. I wanted them to come to the Communion table feeling the full importance of the service and the sense of community that it provides, if only once in their lifetimes. The thought of their first Communion excited the children, but they worried about not being able to partake.

That first Communion for the children was very exciting. I had created Communion crackers that they could safely eat, and they reminded me many times that morning not to leave the crackers at home. At church we put their special crackers into a glass bowl so the elders would know they were different from the rest of the crackers on the table, and I explained to all involved that no one must touch the wheat-free crackers after they had touched those made from wheat. As the children were served, you could see in their eyes the deep excitement that comes with a first life event.

Many Communions have come and gone since that first one, and we still faithfully take crackers that our family can eat. During announcements we let others know that there is gluten-free Communion bread available, and others have also benefited. One visitor thanked me for making them available. It was the first time in years that she had been able to participate in that part of the service.

Lessons From the Bigger Table

So why do I add that baking project to what is often a very busy Friday? My children are used to not being able to eat the food that others are eating. What is it that I want them to learn? It’s that:

Christ called all people to follow Him. The “whoever” in John 3:16 is open to everyone. He asked all the people to sit down when He fed the 5,000, and the bread and fish were passed out to all. He ministered to all types of people, to men from every walk of life, to women and children, to the physically whole as well as to those who were blind, lame, or dumb. His sacrifice was for all people, tribes, and nations.

The children of God come with many different backgrounds, natures, and styles, but they are all His children. When Paul said, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile” (Gal. 3:28), he meant that everyone who is in Christ gets to come to the table. There are no second-class citizens in the kingdom of God.

The body of Christ includes real humans with real problems and adjusts for the needs of all members. “The parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,” and God Himself wants there to “be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another” (1 Cor. 12:22, 25, ESV).*

In our home we still dream of heaven and the healing that will take place. And we look forward to the honor of eating a full Communion with Christ at the long table where all will be included. Someday our family will sit down at that heavenly banquet and be able to eat anything on the table. But for now we include as many as possible in His supper here.

* Scripture quotations marked ESV are from
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.