Open Home, Open Heart

The devotional we have been following in recent months (https://www.24-7prayer.com/dailydevotional) has recently been focussing on the grace of hospitality. I say ‘grace’ because there is something deeply spiritual in the act of giving and receiving hospitality and the impact we can have on others. And it’s a lot more than simply inviting someone over for a meal or catching up over a cup of coffee. It’s about an open heart and a listening ear as much as an open door. In the devotional, Jill Weber says, about Jesus and his post-resurrection walk and talk with two men on a road to the village of Emmaus, ‘Jesus practices hospitality by listening deeply to them, giving space for the swirl of their emotions, then helping them to make sense of what they had experienced by unfolding the narrative of God's history, and allowing them to inhabit and find their place within that larger story.’ As we prepare to move, yet again, down to 29 Atlantic Circle by Portstewart harbour, where we will be for the next several months, I’m asking ‘How, Lord, do you want us to exercise this grace of hospitality in this new context?’

Together, we reminisce, thinking back over the random moments of hospitality that have marked our 41 years of married life across many different countries. There’s the French family who found themselves stranded at Lisbon airport with nowhere to go because of a missed connection. Then there’s the single woman who took ill on the Camino de Santiago and had to cut short her walk, and needed some days of respite, before flying home again out of Lisbon. And many, many more.

Our apartment, also, over a three year period, literally became  ‘church’ for the newly forming community that was meeting there - food, prayers, music long conversations, kids, birthdays, and more prayer. Some days, we would rearrange the entire living room for a day of prayer, with candles and readings, and quiet spaces for friends to sit and reflect. 

Yes, you do have to give of yourself, and be creative when you practice hospitality - it takes time, effort and intentionality. But, in our experience, you get so much in return. The blessing of deep relationships that are formed, the tears that resolve into laughter. The deep joy of walking with someone through a hard place, listening to them, reflecting with them, and eventually seeing them emerge strengthened, restored. Hearing people comment after they have visited us - ‘your home is peaceful. I feel really rested here’.

So having been ‘yanked’, as it were, from our new home in Athens, to dwell for now, for some months, in a new home in Portstewart, we are looking forward to knowing, God, who are the ones you will bring through our doorstep, and how exactly you will create a place of ‘Shalom’ in this new space.

(below - flashback to an earlier time, august 2009 to be exact, when the community of 'A Ponte' was meeting in our flat in Lisbon)