Hospitality Par Excellence

Our family is mixing it up this Christmas. It started with my Christmas wish at Thanksgiving when most all of us were together, except for the two oldest who couldn’t make it. I expressed my Christmas wish for ALL of us to be together at some point between then and Christmas. An ulterior motive for that wish was my full-family photo. The last one was two years ago and the youngest grands are now nearly a foot taller. So, “Merry Christmas, Mama/Nana!” We’re coming together in Austin today for the weekend! My Austin family are known for their hospitality. Rarely does a week go by without guests at their home -- a missionary family, a grieving widow who needs respite, a couple they welcome who needs an introduction to Jesus, a couple who gets married there or the family members, like us, who come in for their warmth and hospitality. They have such generous hearts. This blog today comes to you straight from God’s Word. I was inspired again with my Bible reading plan again yesterday. For December 10th aka Luke 10’s reading, Jesus was giving a training seminar to the twelve disciples, plus the seventy-two others that would be sent out ahead of Him. He was guiding them on how to carry out His mission. “Go in pairs and in the houses you enter, speak “Peace to this household! Eat, drink and receive what is offered to you.” In Luke 10:25-37, we hear Jesus responding to a lawyer who asked what he could do have eternal life. Jesus responded with “Love the Lord, your God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.” Then, starting with Luke 10:38, we read the story of Mary and Martha welcoming Jesus and His disciples to their home. Martha was in hospitality overload mode and Mary was enamored with their guest and didn’t want to miss a word that He spoke. Luke 10 is a how-to chapter that would serve us well for our upcoming Christmas gatherings. The first story is about bringing peace into the homes we enter. The second story is about loving our neighbors aka our family as we love ourselves. Mutual respect, honor, courtesy, servitude, and gratitude from the hosts and the same for our hosts. And the third story is about Martha, who was an exceptional host – duty-bound to serve her guests well, while Mary, though not bent on the serving side, honored their guest with her devoted attention to His every word. Luke 10 provides the hospitality quotient we can all amp up for Christmas peace on earth and in our homes. Have you ever been a guest at someone’s home and they made you feel like you were royalty? Right away, they offer you the most comfortable chair. They serve a meal fit for a king or queen and to top it off they bring you into the conversation. You have their undivided attention. That is hospitality. Jesus’ hospitality was par excellence. He turned water into wine at a wedding. He fed the 5,000. He cooked up a breakfast of fish for the disciples. A menial job for servants, He washed His disciples’ feet. Once again, I pray: “Make me more like You, Jesus, even when it comes to being hospitable!” What if we lived in a “hospitality” mindset? Not just having people over to our homes – but when we step out of our homes into a world where people are made to feel they are appreciated. What does that look like? Putting our phones away and giving them our undivided attention, being attentive when we’re speaking to someone (in that moment, that person, not a text message, an email, or a phone call is what is important). This Christmas, let’s purpose to be the hands and feet of Jesus. The real Jesus is found in you and me as we reach out and touch others with His love, servitude, and hospitality. 1 Peter 4:8-9 “Above all, love each other deeply because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.”