But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.” —Luke 10:42
Having company over was always hard work. Momma and us kids cleaned everything, from the windows to the sinks to the floors. Our house might not have been the fanciest, but it would be clean. We wanted to make our house look as nice as possible so that our guests felt welcome. Southern women have standards about hospitality, after all.
There’s an entire industry set up around cultivating hospitable homes. We watch hours of DIY shows about making beautiful centerpieces and seasonal decor. We spend thousands to have just the right dishes and cream cheese dips to impress our guests. We worry that our guests might see that one spot on the window pane or the mud that one cousin tracked in on his shoes. We stress so much about these outward symbols of hospitality that they limit our ability to develop our inward practices of hospitality.
What would it look like if we spent as much time cultivating hospitable hearts as we did hospitable living rooms? What if, like Mary, we stopped and listened to the guests in our homes and lives instead of worrying about if the situation was clean and respectable enough? What if we stopped worrying about “respectable” hospitality and started making room in our state, our cities, our homes and our hearts for those without shelter, those without safety and those without their own perfect wreaths and placemats?
Lord, Give us eyes to see ourselves and our hearts as You see them. Help us to be people who make room in our lives not just when we look our best or for those who won’t track mud on our floors. Help us to develop an attitude of welcome and hospitality, not just the symbols of them. Amen.
Kristine Isenhower