It’s the Simple Things

Hospitality – have you really ever thought about it?

The definition is: the friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers.

Guests, Visitors, or Strangers…are the ones we are to be hospitable to! I’m reading a book now titled Stranger God by Richard Beck and he really challenges his readers about moral boundaries we set up to exclude others.

My opinion: The boundaries we set aren’t intentionally created to exclude others but have been passed down through families and cultures. However, as a member in the new family of God, we must take on the hospitality of Jesus. We must love like Jesus.

Jesus positioned himself not by title but for people. He went where the marginalized were. He went where the poor were. He went where the fatherless were and he went where the outcasts were.

Jesus went to these “God-forsaken” places, not because God had forsaken them but because people had forsaken them. They weren’t the popular, they weren’t the normal, they weren’t the desirable. Yet God saw them, God wanted them. God wanted to use all of them for His glory, to bring them life and to further His kingdom.

So in reality when we say ‘God-forsaken’ we mean ‘forsaken by people’. God forsakes no one. He loves all of His creation. He never leaves us or forsakes us. He positions Himself where we are, in the grind of life where we may not notice him. But I assure you…he is with us!!

If we are in the family of God and haven’t embraced hospitality like Jesus, its time we begin. This is love like Jesus. This is relentless love, this is crazy love. This is Great Commandment love.

Amen