Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers,
for by so doing, some people have shown
hospitality to angels without knowing it.
– Hebrews 13:2, NIV
A translation of the above text in The Message paraphrase of the Bible caught my attention and unleashed memories from my early days at my parental home. Be inventive in hospitality, I read in Rom. 12:13 (MSG).
Memories. In my parents’ home, you could not miss an embroidered towel adorning the kitchen wall. It was made of white linen with a flowery navy-blue thread stating plainly: Guest in the home, God in the home.
These were simple words with a gigantic message!
Good homes are always crowded with guests, and with them come all those joys that are missing when they are not with us. My mother often says that angels visit good homes. They come in disguise. Good hosts always know when they come.
Since childhood I have learned to welcome guests at the doorstep, and I keep asking myself whether any of them are from … another world? Childish thoughts, perhaps, but real and my very own.
As children, we often had guests “up to our ears,” as we say. But we would soon be quietly reminded to look at the towel in the kitchen. “If you don’t like the first half of the message, contemplate about the other part!” we were told.
A preacher—a genuine distinction from the designation pastor and slowly becoming an endangered species in the Western world—once told me that he seldom invites people to his home because he wouldn’t be able to do justice to the hospitality he enjoys while visiting his flock. Strange, right? As if everyone had to judge our Christianity by the color of the tablecloth on our dining table. But there is something to ponder about this. Could this be a picture of an insulated, boxed-in, and formalized Christian attitude, perhaps? Hoarding or hiding your gift means living in isolation.
Strangers in our lives are the involuntary targets of our attitudes—love and lack of love; kindness and harshness; hospitality and indifference. What great achievement is it when my love is only shared with fellow-Christians? Consider that a choice group of friends and acquaintances may limit the available blessing.
Hospitality is a name. Spiritual gifts? Faith. Healing. Proclamation. Reconciliation. Peace-making. And Hospitality.
God gave us a church community, and he gives us tools to tend it. But our task is measured by how we look after the vulnerable, homeless, and voiceless …
Hospitality is a name … It is given to those who care for the least of these, God’s brothers and sisters.
—Rajmund Dabrowski is the RMC communication director and editor of NewsNuggets. Photo by Pexels.
