A Weekend That Didn’t Go As Planned

The weekend started out as expected. Our family traveled for hours to meet at my daughters house to help them move. Once they finished loading up the last of their boxes, we enjoyed ice cream and fireworks at their community’s historic July 4th celebration. Everything was going according to plan.

We decided to stay at the old house until we got the new house cleaned and a couple of the rooms painted. And then the unexpected happened. The air conditioner decided to quit at their old house. The thermostat read 90 degrees. Just go to the new house, you say? Of course, except the water was off due to a delay in a construction project. And there were boxes. Everywhere. No place to lay our heads. 

Open Door Hospitality

We thought about the options. Hotel rooms all around. Expensive, but not out of the question. (To get out of the heat, I would have taken out a small loan.) Or we could stay at the hot house on air mattresses and fans and pretend we were in a sauna. Definitely, out of the question. Then the suggestion came from an unlikely source. A new friend invited us to stay at their guest house. We’d only met them once. The night before. Hot, sweaty, and thankful, we arrived late. The room was spotless. Not one speck of dust, a newly made bed, and fresh flowers from her garden on the dresser testified to her hard work.

Her generosity moved me to tears. I learned a little more about my new friend. She wanted to give because she had been given much. These were hard working people who (like us) struggle to make ends meet. But they were willing to share what they did have to help practical strangers.

A Second Door Opens

The next day, refreshed and hopeful, we thanked them for their hospitality and headed back to work on cleaning the new house. Again we hit a roadblock. The construction lasted longer than expected. We debated the long trek back home. But there was still so much to do. The refrigerator needed installing. The washer and dryer needed moving. Not to mention the painting, cleaning, and organizing. There was too much to do for us to leave. We didn’t want to impose on our new friends again. But we didn’t have to. Another new friend offered us their spare room (and a yard for our dogs to play).

Not once, but twice, we benefited from the generous hospitality of others. Their kindness overwhelmed me. Immediately I started thinking of ways I could pay them back. 

What Hospitality Actually Requires

But that wasn’t the point. These giving people opened their doors — their lives to us without expectation. They weren’t renting us a room for the night. They lived out the Scripture by providing us a cool place to sleep and breakfast the next morning. They met a real need and expected nothing in return.

This kind of hospitality is what the author of Romans 12:13 and Hebrews 13:2 describes — true friendship displayed to a stranger. Friendship love (or philoxenia in the Biblical Greek) is an active love. An ongoing lifestyle. A practice that we do again and again. This kind of love is evidence of the authenticity of our faith. It’s a boots-on-the-ground kind of love. 

What I Learned About Open Doors

This weekend I learned that hospitality isn’t about creating the perfect, most comfortable environment. Instead, hospitality means making space in your life and home for others when the need arises. It means being willing to rush to change the sheets and sweep so you can make room for an unexpected guest. It means going out of your way to share a table and your life with those who may only be passing through. But the best part of hospitality is that it forges new relationships. 

Our hosts gave us more than just a bed and food. They offered the hand of friendship, laughter, and joy that can only come as a result of a relationship with Jesus. We did nothing to deserve their kindness. C. S. Lewis said it best. We received this kind of love “…not because [we] are lovable but because Love Himself is in those who love [us]” (The Four Loves).

We came in as strangers and left as friends.