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My husband and I have experienced numerous relocations in our thirty-five years together, totaling thirteen moves for our family. Perhaps, in His kindness, the Lord orchestrated these changes to prevent us from becoming overly attached to our physical home, emphasizing its primary purpose: a haven for hospitality.
In most of our dwellings around the Midwest, hospitality meant joyfully hosting Bible studies and events, gathering family and guests around our table, and extending a warm welcome to overnight visitors.
In one particular home, after careful consideration, we stepped into a new, unfamiliar realm of hospitality. Extending a bold invitation to Mary, the director of our local pregnancy resource center, we shared that under the right circumstances, our home was available to a young girl in need of care and a place to stay. Just as I never expected a call when I signed up as a bone marrow donor thirty-five years ago, I never anticipated our offer to actually be taken up.
One quiet Saturday morning, my husband had taken all four of our kids on a Daddy-date. Seated comfortably in my favorite overstuffed chair, in my favorite pajamas, with my favorite mug filled with my favorite hot drink, I worked diligently to reply to neglected emails. My aim was to clear my inbox before my needy brood returned.
While I was responding to a specific email about volunteering, my phone rang, and I saw the name. It was Mary at the pregnancy resource center where I volunteered. Engrossed in finishing my email (ironically about volunteering), I ignored her call. Instead of leaving a voicemail, Mary sent a text seconds later:
“We have a young girl in need of your help.
Social worker won’t leave until she and baby have a safe place to go.”
Chills surfaced all over me as I realized Mary had accepted our offer of hospitality. Our home was about to become a refuge for a young girl and her baby. In that moment, I sensed God urging me to be available, to trust Him, and say “yes” to inviting unknown and needy individuals into our home for an unspecified period of time.
Karen Mains, in her classic book Open Heart, Open Home, draws a sharp distinction between hospitality and entertaining. She elaborates on the truth that entertaining focuses on the house. Hospitality focuses on the heart. Entertainment and hospitality are 180 degrees apart! Entertaining asks, ‘What will they think of me?’ Hospitality asks, ‘What do they need?’
I understood the Lord wasn’t asking me to entertain this woman and her baby; He was calling me to offer hospitality. We were to open our home to what He was about to entrust to us, seeking to meet profound needs with warmth and generosity. I knew we needed to say “Yes.”
Within an hour, my husband and I stood in a Walmart parking lot, meeting a frightened 18-year-old and her tiny two-week-old baby girl. The social worker introduced us as we warmly greeted this scared teenager. With her newborn baby, she entered our van and hearts that morning, and we took them home.
Hospitality takes a substantial investment of time, energy, and resources. For some, it pushes us well beyond our comfort zones. Yet, opening the homes He’s given us and inviting others in, whether for a single cup of coffee or six months of care, exemplifies the kindness of extravagant love. We can love one another like this because God first loved us and showed us how to love others.