Frederick George Cotman
A crisp fall evening, with blazing sunset of reds, pinks, corals shouting for attention out our back deck found us taking a moment to admire. As we were sitting in peace, the front door opened and my 26 year old, Joel, strode in with weary face and exhausted body.
"I just decided to come home after working all last night and today, because I need "us" to give me some rest and peace.
Dinner still a half-hour away, I quickly cut some savory cheese and mounted some crisp whole grain crackers on a plate and poured a bubbly drink in a glass and gave him my offering, "Just a little something to hold you over till dinner is ready."
The furrowed brow softened and he said, "This is why I came home--I knew you all would fill me back up and I wanted peace and quiet for at least one night."
One of the best powers of home is the life that comes from within that gives comfort, a "place to belong" and a place that soothes the soul, inspires the mind, and gives a moral compass through all the twists and turns of life.
I asked my boys last year why they both idealized the thought of coming home. Both said, "It was the hot meals we shared every night. The welcome of our dining table. The cups of tea and books read and all that went into making our home place the best place to be, the one place that always said, no matter what, you are welcome!"
Often when we think of having company over, we think of cleaning our home, cooking great meals, decorating, putting forth our best.
Yet, when I pondered Jesus, I realized, he prepared a garden for his children when they were first created--one of beauty, color, endless choices for food, a palette of delight to enjoy in all that His artist hand could create.
Before he would give his last heart-felt words to his disciples, he had chosen a home with an upper room, he had sent a servant to prepare it and to prepare food, so that his words given would fall in the atmosphere and beauty of a prepared place. And I have to think that the God who prepared a garden of such beauty at the beginning, had also put thought into preparing the place of the last supper with the eye of comfort, beauty, hospitality.
He, the one who is still going to prepare a place for us in eternity--that there will be many mansions where we will dwell with Him.
Home is one of the things that many in our world have not valued, and so there is no prepared place.
It is in giving rhythms of home, meals, tea times, convalescent food (soups, crackers, ginger-ale), birthday fare; favorite Sunday night snack dinners; Saturday night pizza and movie nights; Shepherd's meal on Christmas Eve; candle light evenings with soft music.
The giving of hospitality to our beloved children is an art that will truly reach their souls and give them a reason to believe in the God of love and holiness. When body needs and emotional needs and minds are filled with nobility and inspiration, then souls are predisposed to want to follow the God who is revered in all of these rituals.
It is not the indoctrination of theology forced down daily that crafts a soul that believes, it is the serving and loving and giving that surrounds the messages where souls are reached.
A truth, without love and grace, is a truth that is rejected,
because Jesus' words without Jesus becoming the servant king who washed feet and fed thousands and took children into His arms,
would not be God incarnated.
My dear friend, Elizabeth Foss said, "
"Make hospitality your prayer. Seek to comfort and to minister. Look for ways to lighten someone else’s load. In every guest and child, no matter how cranky, no matter how demanding, see Christ. Open your heart wide; risk allowing people to see your weaknesses. For it is in that very weakness that his power is made perfect."
And so, as we approach the holidays, ponder how to make your home for your children, even small ones who you caress and give cool sips of juice and small bites of meal; the teens who rage with hormones and moods but need a cup of thoughtfulness and cookies prepared on their behalf; and a weary husband who needs patience and compassion served in a favorite treat--
a place where the giving of hospitality and love becomes the life through which your children see Jesus incarnate in your home.
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This week, I will be away from all social media, sharing a time away with my precious family, in the mountains. I have asked some other friends to share heart articles with you, and I know these articles will fill your soul, because I know the ones writing them. I wish you a good and glad week.
Life gives us plenty of opportunities to practice what we "preach," doesn't it? It seems there's always something negative happening that presses me to remember that God is still on the throne, there is still something beautiful about the world, and there is a reason to light a candle rather than curse the darkness. As Ruth Schwenk shares this morning ...
