WELCOMING STRANGERS



Read Hebrews 13:1-2



1 Keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters.2 Don't forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it!



Whenever we think of hospitality, we think in terms of a willingness to have our friends around for dinner. We think of sociability, or even the ability to be our own mini-master chefs. Nothing wrong with that, though the Bible speaks differently. Hospitality in the Bible refers to the welcoming of strangers. It has little to do with cooking skills or fancy homes or outgoing sociability. It is to do with making space and time for someone who is as yet a stranger to us.



We find a parallel in how churches relate to visitors or strangers. Some churches consider themselves very friendly, but from observation, it is friendliness among friends. The sociable circle of friends is not always flexible and accommodating when a new person appears on the scene. The true test of a church's friendliness and hospitality is how it treats a visitor, not how it treats its regulars.



The stranger, the visitor, is to be seen as someone who may yet become a friend. A person sent from God to refresh and renew our existing church network. Which is why the passage above refers to them being like angels: messengers from God. So if we lock ourselves into our existing social networks and make no room for anyone else, we are missing out on a new thing God might want to be doing among us.



By all means have a circle of friends. But leave gaps in the circle for others to join in.



Blessings



David Reay

http://www.hope1032.com.au/ LifeWords 1/9/2010