On the Stranger's Table

Dear brother or sister in Christ,

A long time ago, in a desert near Hebron, an old man sat in the door of his tent in the heat of the day. Three travellers approached. He did not know them. He ran to meet them anyway. He brought water for their feet. He told his wife to make bread. He killed a young calf and stood under the tree while they ate.

The travellers were the Lord and two angels. Abraham did not know that until later. He gave hospitality first; the recognition came afterward. This is almost always how it goes.

Christian hospitality does not require great houses or great meals. It requires only that we keep the door of the heart slightly ajar — a willingness to feed whomever the Lord sends down our street. It might be the colleague who lingers after lunch because they have nowhere to be. It might be the neighbour who keeps the news to themselves but is more lonely than we knew. It might be the child of those who sit beside you at church, on the long drive home, who wants to talk about something they cannot yet say to their parents.

It might also be a stranger online. There are quiet visitors to this page from time zones we will never see. They read a letter, perhaps this one. They close the tab. We do not know they were there. But the Lord knows, and that is the host's work — to set the table without needing to count the chairs that were used.

We pray you have such a household. A door that opens warmly. A coffee always at the ready. A spare seat at the table — even, perhaps, the one across from where you sit alone.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

A brother in Christ