When I was a kid, staying on the farm with my aunt and uncle, our home was on a gravel road a couple of miles from town. We were the next-to-last farm on the road, so if we saw a dust cloud headed our way, odds were it meant that someone was coming to visit. I spent many hours on the porch or under the shade of the big tree in the front yard, reading a book, and watching for a dust cloud.
“The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre… He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them.” (Genesis 18:1-2)
One of the happiest sounds in a home isn’t the dishwasher finishing or the dryer beeping. It’s the phone ringing or the sound of the doorbell (random solicitors excepted, of course).
The sound of someone pulling into the driveway or at the door interrupts whatever we’re doing and poses a simple question: Will we welcome this person in?
Times have drastically changed since Genesis 18 when three strangers showed up on Abraham’s doorstep. He didn’t wait to see what the visitors wanted before he hurried to greet them. He ran to meet them, offered water, a place to rest, and a meal. Only later did he discover that, in welcoming strangers, he had received an unexpected blessing from God.
These days, we might be a little more cautious and a lot more skeptical, but hospitality has always been important to God. How we treat others matters.
Hospitality can still involve inviting others into our homes. But biblical hospitality is much simpler and much deeper and sometimes just as intimidating. It’s making room for another person at the table, in a Bible study or prayer group, next to you in the pew, or including them in something as simple as a smile. It’s offering kindness. It’s treating others as gifts instead of interruptions.
John Wesley understood this well. Methodism didn’t begin in the sanctuary. It began in homes, neighborhoods, hospitals, prisons, and marketplaces. It grew through generous hearts and open hands. The focus was creating places where Christ could be encountered.
Not everyone who needs hospitality will ring our doorbell or pull into our driveway. But sometimes people we know will reach out, seeking a kind word or a ready ear. As the saying goes, “Hospitality begins at home.” But many more will meet us in the grocery store, in the park or at the gym, at the coffee shop, across the office hallway, or on the sidewalk. We show hospitality when, wherever we go, we offer the welcome of Christ.
A home isn’t defined by its walls but by its welcome.
May our homes—and our hearts—be places where people find kindness before judgment, conversation before criticism, and grace before anything else.
Prayer: Lord, thank you for welcoming me into your family and accepting me as your own. Teach me to welcome others with that same generosity. Wherever I meet people today, help me offer the kindness, warmth, and love that reflect your heart. Make my life a place where others feel at home because they have encountered you. Amen.
