Years ago, when my daughters were young, we would come from Buffalo to visit my parents in the small town they lived in. The house was nothing special, but for the girls, they looked forward to being on the front porch with their grandfather. They would chit-chat together and watch people walk by.
One of those people was a tall slender man, in his forties perhaps. He came down the street with difficulty. There had been an accident in his youth that left him unable to walk without a cane—the kind with the four leg extensions. The sidewalk was uneven and broken. Each day he walked past my parent’s house, from where and to where I do not know.
It turned out he also was unable to speak clearly. Frequently he would stop at the house, come up to the porch, and visit with my dad. My daughters were fascinated with it all. To this day they comment how my dad would listen to this young man, they would smile and laugh. It was clear that being accepted as a person like anyone else was not his normal experience.
The girls asked my dad once what the man’s name was. He had no idea, but for over five years they visited like old friends. Sometimes they just sat together on the porch and said nothing.
Sometimes hospitality demands we step out of our comfort zone… to be offered to strangers and not just friends. In our spiritual life, the church commands us to be hospitable as if our acts were done for Jesus.
“Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it” Hebrews 13:2.
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