Making space for others...
It's pilGrim Thursday - where we Give of ourselves to others.What does hospitality involve?
If we have people around for a meal, we prepare the food, lay the table, let them in and have them in our space. We eat, talk and share our home, our time and our lives with them. We reveal ourselves and how we live to them. This is even more true when people stay in our home for a few days.
But hospitality doesn't only involve opening our home. I have stayed in some people's houses where the experience has been quite sterile. I've had a bed and a bathroom to use, but I did not feel "at home". Conversely, I have spent an hour with a person in a coffee shop and felt like I have so deeply connected with them that it is as if I have been in their home for a couple of days.
Hospitality is not about opening our houses. It's about opening our hearts. Hospitality is when someone comes past your desk at work and you sense that they need to talk and you give them the time they need. Hospitality is noticing that someone isn't doing well and taking the risk of starting the caring conversation they need. Hospitality is when we are rushing along and realise that our spouse, child, parent, friend or even a stranger need us to slow down and be with them. Hospitality is about setting the table of your heart and being ready to "break the bread of life".
The author of Hebrews suggests that some have literally entertained angels without knowing it. In the Old Testament Abraham, Lot, Gideon and Manoah (Samson's dad) were visited by angels and did not realise it. If they had not been hospitable, they would have missed out on the message and blessing that God had for them.
But I think there is room to interpret this figuratively too. Over the years we have opened our hearts and home to many people. At times their presence has been a bigger blessing to us than we have been to them. Sometimes we the "givers" have been the ones who have received the most. Our guests have been "angels" to us.
I think that when we open our hearts to others, these could be literal or figurative encounters with angels.
| Keep on loving each other as sisters and brothers. 2 Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. (Hebrews13:1-2) |
