Holiness is Hospitality
Hospitality is a spiritual practice. Holiness is shown in the hospitality we extend. Hospitality is welcoming others, letting them be guests, offering them space, and providing them with services.
When our boys were 11, 10, 9, and 4 my wife and I decided we wanted to teach them hospitality. We choose to do this by inviting them to a meal in our home where they would be the guests and we the host and hostess. We sent them to walk around the block while we literally set the table, and when they returned we met them at the door and invited them in. We had a simple menu prepared that they could choose from including beverages and dessert. To their amazement we told them they could choose whatever they would like, in whatever order they wanted to receive it--they were our guests!
It was hard to serve them dessert first and to clean up the spilt milk without accompanying the task with “good teaching”! But we stayed with it and in the end, thinking that we were teaching them, we looked at each other and realized we were the ones who learned the most. Providing hospitality certainly builds relationships but is very difficult to do.
We have been hosted by our God. Our God calls for us to host others. “We love because he first loved us” we read in 1 John 4:19. We learn of God’s gracious hospitality by practicing hospitality—both with those who live with us and those who come unannounced into our lives.
Who has taught you hospitality? If possible share your thanks with them, for in doing so, they have welcomed you into holy living.
Prayer: O Lord open my arms to receive and serve those you love. Amen.
Pastor Jerry
Tomorrow: Holiness is Helping People Begin Again
