July 30
ALWAYS WELCOME THE STRANGER. GOD MODELED THIS BY HOW HE WELCOMED US.
A recurring theme in the Bible is welcoming the stranger (or foreigner). Jesus and His followers tried to live this out and, in many cases, benefited from others welcoming them. Hospitality is always a marker of people who follow Jesus.
Some of us think of hospitality as an industry, like hotels or restaurants. We might think hospitality is cooking a nice meal for friends or someone crashing on our couch when they're in town. But hospitality is much more costly and intimate than we tend to think. A spirit of hospitality is a willingness to open our doors when it's inconvenient for us. It means prioritizing people in need when we might have other projects we'd prefer to work on in a given moment. Hospitality looks like finding joy in creating a place for people we wouldn't naturally choose, people who can be difficult to love.
When my kids visited all those world leaders years ago, you know what we took as a gift for princes, kings, and dignitaries? We took them a copy of our house key. At least a hundred people can just let themselves in if they happen to be in the neighborhood. It's just another reflection of what hospitality looks like when we let it off the leash.
It's easy to trust God's idea of welcoming when it's about people we already know and who are easy to love. It's a little harder when it means an extended stay by someone who dirties up our dishes and borrows the car and returns it on empty. Those are the moments we find out whether we really trust that God knew best when He told us to love one another or if it's just a suggestion we can ignore.
Who's the stranger in your life you can welcome and show love to today?
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