A defining trait

"It has been a defining trait of our family: The moment some simple but meaningful treat is prepared, a good fish soup or the first pot of coffee in weeks, up trots some uninvited person with an appetite."

I had to chuckle at that quote from our current read-aloud, Peace Like a River by Leif Enger. Coty was sitting in his chair at the end of the table in the sunshine reading, the boys were gathered around, I had my tea and a piece of dense German pumpernickel bread with some cherry preserves on it and a cup of good black tea. As he read, we all recognized a defining trait of our home in that quote.

We have had our share of uninvited guests. In Enger's story, the children, Swede and Rube are not very happy when such guests appear. In the chapter from which the quote above is taken, when the coffee is hot and they hear a knock on the door, the uninvited guest is a federal agent looking for her fugitive brother. At another time in the story, the guest was the traveling salesman who always ate greedily, consuming far more than his fair share of what was offered.

We have fed neither federal agents nor traveling salesmen. Our drop-ins are mostly twenty-something young men and they are always, always welcome, no matter how much they eat : )

We usually feel like Kenyans whose Swahili proverb says,

Mgeni afike, mwenyeji afurahi.

It means,

When the guest arrives, the host rejoices.

Lord, keep us always willing and happy to share our "simple and meaningful treats" with whatever guests you bring to our door....

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Post script: I've been chewing on this post for a couple of days. It was hard to finish because it has raised some hard questions for me.

It is easy to talk about the happy times of hospitality. It is easy to open our doors to the kind young men who clean up the kitchen and laugh with my sons, the missionary couple with precious children who sit at the table and tell stories of work and learning and growing and leave us marveling at God's grace and guidance in their lives, the first time church visitor eager to connect and grateful for a lunch invitation.

But what if the guests are not like these? What if they are rude, ungrateful, or even hostile? What if they have big problems that interrupt our lives in unexpected ways? What if they are dirty or use foul language? How hospitable would I be then? How gracious and welcoming? These are hard questions.

My pride, selfishness, and self-righteousness glare at me. It is easy to pat myself on the back for opening my home to so many. But what has it cost me - time in the kitchen, a stretched food budget, a bit less time to devote to personal pursuits? Not much, really.

I long to truly embrace and embody the biblical mandate to offer hospitality, for such hospitality to be a defining trait in our lives. I continue to pray, Lord, keep us always willing and happy to share our "simple and meaningful treats" with whatever guests you bring to our door...

and really mean whatever guests.

For further reading:

"We play small parts in the lives of many people we encounter. Hospitality is practiced in a thousand reckless little ways. We don’t know what will be the outcome of caring for the stranger. God is under no obligation to tell us, and yet he notices and controls the consequences of each little temporal act, and they will not go unrewarded." From an article by Margie Haack of Ransom Fellowship. Read the whole article here.

James 2:1-9
1 Peter 4:9
Hebrews 13:2