Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. —Hebrews 13:2
n
My inn is always open. Every traveler is welcome here. Rich or poor are the same to me; I’ll even rent a room to a Roman. Of course, we don’t have many strangers passing through who want to stop here. The city is only a few miles farther. Sometimes I go days without a soul checking in. Other times there can be a crowd. That’s the way it was during the census. Everyone related to one of the old families from here had to come register. I didn’t have an empty room the whole time it was going on.
n
One couple that came then I can’t forget. They were from up north in Galilee. The man had walked the whole way while his wife rode a donkey. It was hard to believe he was a descendant of King David. He was a carpenter without a penny to spare. His wife was a little thing. She never complained, but I knew she was exhausted. She was about to have their baby.
n
They arrived late one evening. There was no room for them, but I couldn’t turn them away. A place in my stable was all I could provide, but I tried to make them comfortable. That night the baby was born. My wife helped. Afterwards she said some shepherds had come to see the child and worshiped him like a king. Later still, strangers from the East came searching for the boy. He would be a great king they said and brought him gifts. Shortly after they left, the young family left also, not for home, they said, but for Egypt.
n
Nothing stranger has ever happened here. I still don’t know what it means. Who was that little boy, I wonder? What will he do in the world?
n
Help me, Lord, to see the needs of those outside my narrow circle, cheerfully to minister to those needs and to welcome strangers as heartily as I do old friends. Amen.
n
Guy Johnson