My husband and I had been working with the School of Preaching for several years.  One year there was a very special couple enrolled in the two year intensive program.  Their school-aged children stayed back in Rochester with relatives.  They saw them on weekends.  We had them over for several dinners and truly enjoyed their company.

I will never forget the invitation to come to “Their Place” for dinner.  I had a pretty good idea of where they lived and couldn’t figure out how they were going to pull this one off.

We arrived at their efficiency/motel room right on time.  Stacy greeted us at the door and the smell of Southern cooking invited us in.  We had the place of honor… yup…on their bed, while they pulled up chairs and TV tables.  That electric skillet, stationed on the dresser by the small television set, made the best fried chicken I had ever tasted.   Salad greens and biscuits completed our feast.  We thoroughly enjoyed our fellowship, sharing all sorts of funny stories and laughing our way to the chocolate chip cookies.  Who cared that lack of space did not allow them to hide the laundry.  It didn’t matter.

Lesson:  Genuine hospitality is not in having a just right dining room and menu, comfortable seating and pretty matching dishware.  Those things are nice and I am certain that Stacy and Paul are continuing to be hospitable in their lovely home in Rochester.  Rather, hospitality is about making folks feel welcomed and at ease wherever the gathering happens to be.  They wanted to create time to share in Christian fellowship with us. They made it happen in a selfless way.  That evening taught me a valuable lesson about how to show loving hospitality and get over the idea that things have to be perfect before we can have folks over.

Romans 12:10 states that we as believers in Christ should be devoted to one another in love.
That verse gains more definition as we read in vs. 13 to practice hospitality.

Hebrews  13:2 reminds us that we might even have an opportunity to share with angels as we extend hospitality.  Amazing!

Jesus would have been very comfortable with us that evening in a small efficiency/motel room eating fried chicken.  In fact, I think He was.

Marty Coletta