To my readers: This dear lady passed away peacefully in her sleep this week at the age of 102. And, I will miss her.
Showing Hospitality
And she must have a reputation for good deeds, as one who has brought up children, who has practiced hospitality to strangers . . . 1 Timothy 5:9 (Amplified Bible)
Dear friend, when you extend hospitality to Christian brothers and sisters, even when they are strangers, you make the faith visible. 3 John 1:5 (The Message)
I was quite young when I met my husband (a freshman in college). The first time I was invited to dinner in his home I found myself trapped in the small living room while he and some friends who dropped by shared “war stories”. After enduring this for a while I ventured into the kitchen where his mother was working on dinner preparations. I nervously asked if there was anything I could do to help. Instead of dismissing me she turned from the refrigerator and handed m a small jar of green olives. She directed me to a cupboard where I would find a small crystal bowl to put them in. I washed my hands and scooped the olives into the dish. Then I sliced some gherkins intended for the salad. We chatted pleasantly as we worked. We did not know that we would share many other chores over the next five decades but we were off to a very good start. I often wonder what I would have done if she had sent me back to the living room that day. I think of her act of understanding and kindness whenever I hear the word: hospitality.
We are instructed in scripture to practice hospitality as part of our Christian witness, but the term it is rarely defined. I believe it is those small thoughtful acts of kindness designed to help another person feel “at home” in your home. It is due to strangers as well as to the brethren. In this modern cautious age it is often as difficult to receive hospitality as it is to offer it. We must be mindful of opportunities to do both.
©Tina Green 2008
