I grew up in an extremely hospitable home. My parents went out of their way to literally accommodate 100’s of people. Some of them made our home theirs for couple of days every week, others stayed couple of weeks every year, while some stayed with us for many years. This is beside those who ate at our home every day.
Without realizing hospitality became part of my nature. Couple of days after I arrived in 
my husband’s apartment, we invited his friend’s family for dinner. Even though I was not at all an experienced cook, I tried to make a special Indian dish for them. In the last 26 years of our life together we have invited many to our home. Yet I don’t claim that I am as hospitable as my parents.
Only recently have I begun to realize that I am the guest of the Divine Host. I did not realize that I have an open invitation to share in the fellowship with Him, so He came to me and said I am your Immanuel who stays with you forever. Actually I was not in a state to know the depth, height and width of this fellowship so He tried to explain it with his deeds. But still I didn’t get it. Then He invited me to His table, Lord’s Supper to show me the extent of the fellowship He sets before me.
I was not part of the elite group when I received the invitation. Nobody would have called me to such a great banquet. He found me among the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame in the alley and in the street. Thus I became the guest of the Divine Host. I got the glimpse of His unconditional love for the first time.
Yet my story didn’t end with the banquet. He did not ask me to leave the banquet after it was over. I realized that He has invited me to Himself not just to a meal or home. The ultimate hospitality! I was invited to share His life, to be His daughter, precious indeed as He purchased me for God to serve Him as a royal priest. Forever I belong to Him and He belongs to me.
Then He said, “extend the same hospitality to others in the alleys and streets.” I missed the point at first, then I put a small step but feared that my new friends would call me “friend of sinners, drunkard, and glutton.” I valued their opinion more than His commission. I often looked to others and not Him to whom I belong for eternity.
He waited all these years to teach me the implications of being the guest of the Divine Host. Now at least I have turned in that direction of being one. Yet, “Lord, there is more to learn. Give me the grace to lean on You every day to be hospitable like You to extend Your love to the unloved and unlovable.”
How has this thought inspired you? Please leave your comments.
Thoughts For You 