Gift #10: The Gift of Gracious Hospitality.
Hospitality. It’s a beautiful word, isn’t it? Hospitality is not an industry, although many people today work in the “hospitality industry” and I am very thankful to them. The action of hospitality is as old as time. Hospitality is anchored in love and it is a love which is extended to strangers.
The idea of being hospitable recurs many times in the Bible, and several times we are reminded not to forget; hospitality. We are instructed to be hospitable to strangers, it’s asking us to go out of our comfort zone, but obviously hospitality has many blessings for the giver and receiver. How cool is it to entertain angels?
Sometimes we get hospitality mixed up with entertaining. Entertaining takes quite an effort and can be expensive, especially if the object is to impress others. Hospitality shares and serves with gracious humility. It is a true gift to the receiver and a channel of blessing to the giver. Hospitality might require a bit more effort than usual but if we avoid being hospitable because it takes just too much effort and energy, well then we are doing it the wrong way.
I love the quote below. It explains the servant nature of hospitality. It is a gift; its purpose is to build another / others up. Hospitality is simply love in action and like so many of the gifts where we give of ourselves, it has more to do with a generous heart than a generous wallet.
This Christmas may you give and receive the gift of gracious hospitality which shares, serves, encourages and uplifts those we know and love as well as the stranger in our midst.
Way leads onto Way 