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Scripture: Genesis 18:1-8
Song: Room In God’s Kingdom
Our family’s first kitchen table was a piece of plywood perched on cinder blocks. (I stubbed my big toe on one of those blocks pulling up to the table one morning when I was only half-awake.) The family who sold us the house left two metal patio chairs that we used for seats. We completed our dining arrangement with a couple of lawn chairs. When visitors came, my sister and I shared a piano bench and bumped elbows while we ate.
Our furnishings were meager but we never hurt for company. Around that plywood table my folks first studied the gospel with two elders and a preacher that drove the 20 miles out to our place. It was around that table that Mom entertained the saints and friends that came to visit frequently. Someone inevitably bumped a knee on the cinder blocks or leaned too heavily on one corner so that the other end lifted and we all had a laugh.
Hospitality is not the privilege of the wealthy nor the activity of preachers, elders, and deacons. It is a function of the believer, the child of Abraham. Abraham’s faith is seen not just when he set out for Canaan but when at age 99 he ran from his tent to offer rest to some passersby. Don’t wait for new furniture or to move from an apartment to a house to practice hospitality. What makes hospitality for you and the recipient is not the furnishings and decor. It’s the heart. It’s that you’ve tented together.
Jason Moore
