Open, the Hospitable HeartSample

The Language of Hospitality

My heart is open to you. I long to be with you. To have you with me is a pleasure.

I have a friend who does hospitality really well. Her name is Vicki. It’s not any one thing in particular—she offers a charcuterie of relational gestures that together enrich others with welcome, nurture, love.

One visit she made spaghetti sauce from scratch for us. She simmered tomatoes donated from someone’s garden overflow and seasoned them with all kinds of fresh herbs. It is definitely my “life-spaghetti sauce,” the best ever.

Then there was the summer visit when she bought a cheap blow-up pool and placed it on the patio. The adults set folding chairs around the perimeter. With our feet submerged and the children playing in the middle, we chatted and laughed all afternoon.

Another visit, she sliced red, green, orange, and yellow bell peppers and bid us close our eyes, and try to decipher the unique flavor of each.

You may think that these little gestures didn’t matter much. But when I was struggling with depression, her home was a refuge for me. When my husband and I were traveling with all seven of our children, she was the only one brave enough to invite us to stay with her. It wasn’t her house that left the lasting impact, but the place she opened for me and my family in her heart. Holy Spirit ministered to us through her hospitality.

In these days of separation, we are all looking for fresh ways to connect face-to-face. The lonely among us need friends. The hurting need comfort. Everyone wants to be chosen, to be invited.

Hospitality is one expression of the Lord’s language of love. In its essence we feel we are coming home to Him. Transcending age, gender and even culture, the gift of hospitality is so powerful it can change the atmosphere of any situation and welcome any person with wrap-around love. It offers refuge from judgement and fixing. Those basking in hospitality can be hidden and safe for a twinkling moment before reentering the brash world. Here, they experience Jesus.

The whole message of this Bible plan is this—The Lord requires hospitality because He is hospitable. Every single day of our lives we feast on and rest in God’s tangible expressions of hospitality. Consider the earth intricately created just for us. Dream of Heaven’s joy’s prepared for us. But more than this, God has invited us into a love relationship through Jesus. He is willing to live in us if we hospitably open the door of our heart and invite Him in. Pause with me and think reverently!

Each day of this plan is an opportunity to:

• Mediate on some core attitudes of a hospitable heart
• Peek into a hospitable home
• “Practice hospitality” with some practical hospitality tips
• Explore Scriptures that teach us to walk in hospitality
• But ultimately, experience God’s openhearted hospitality that urgently and persistently welcomes each of us.

Practice hospitality (Rom. 12:13).

• As members of a fallen world, we are deeply in need of the merciful hospitality of God. We need to come to our senses, get up and run—run all the way home to God. If you need a home in God’s heart, He is eagerly watching for you and waiting with open arms to receive you.
• Think back to several times you felt deeply welcomed, more than a just fun time, an experience where you were welcomed into someone’s home, heart, life. What did this person do or say or perhaps not do or say that made a lasting impression of loving welcome? If so led, open a note-to-self that lists three ways you can enhance your own hospitality ministry by their example. If so led, tell this person how much their hospitably meant to you.
• Watch for opportunities to welcome others. If you want to be a little risky in love, next time an opportunity to be the host presents itself, raise your hand even though you are not quite sure of your ability. Let God teach you, stretch you, be creative through you, and provide the power to host in His name.
• As Holy Spirit leads, pause now and ask Him to give the spiritual gift of hospitality to you and your family.

Dear reader and fellow disciple of Jesus, thank you for joining me for this adventure in hospitality. I welcome you with genuine joy. Let’s consider together God’s call to hospitality revealed in today’s verses.