When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality. -Romans 12:13 (New Living Translation)
My senior year of High School, my family moved into our mission Guest House so my mom could manage it. The Guest House was a little like a hotel in that there were two floors of rooms, each with a kitchenette. It was a place for our missionaries from elsewhere in country to stay when they were visiting their children, on business, or for downtime. We served breakfast and dinner. It was a great fit for Mom because she loved talking to people and listening to stories.
Sometime that year, Mom and Dad were both out of town for a week leaving me to play hostess. I remember telling the missionaries one night when they asked how it was going that hospitality was not my gift. I got a good laugh.
I was wrong in my assertion. I understood hospitality to be playing the perfect host—entertaining. A note in my Bible says “Hospitality, by contrast, focuses on the guest’s needs, such as a place to stay, nourishing food, a listening ear, or just acceptance. Hospitality can happen in a messy home. It can happen around a dinner table where the main dish is canned soup. It can even happen while the host and guest are doing chores together.”
I am not an entertainer. I can, however, offer hospitality. We all can, and should practice it. In fact, the NLT translation of Romans tells us to be eager to practice it. That indicates to me that we are to be on the lookout for opportunities to practice. The Message says “be inventive in hospitality.”
This Christmas, and this coming year, let’s be inventive as we practice hospitality. Who knows what might happen.