True hospitality

We moved into this big ol beautiful house exactly one year ago.  I remember thinking about all of the wonderful times we would experience together.  The huge family holidays, lots of birthday parties, summer cook-outs, and on and on.  I asked God to teach me hospitality.  I asked Him to help me be a good hostess.  

When we go to other folks' homes for supper or a party, I notice things like how a table is set and how the home is decorated.  I totally notice the food that the host has prepared and how it is served.  How is the furniture arranged for optimum flow of traffic?  where are the drinks in relation to the food?  How present is the hostess in conversing with her guests?  I notice all of that stuff.  

Well, we have lots of people staying in this house right now and they are exhausted.  They don't care about the flow of traffic or how the flowers are arranged.  They are broken.  They need a hostess who knows what it is to be broken.  They are hungry.  They need a hostess to has strong arms to hold them and empty shoulders to cry on.  They need Jesus.  I have been given a glorious opportunity to host some folks who - in the eyes of American society - don't have thier act together.  But really, who does?  

Loving the unloveable, serving the ungrateful, washing the dirty, feeding the hungry, comforting the broken - this is true hospitality.  This is where Jesus has me.  Big sigh.  After all, that is what HE has done for me.  Amen.