Corona Devo 3309

The other morning, I had the idea that it would be nice to surprise my husband with an apple fritter from the grocery store bakery.  He loves apple fritters! 

Let all that you do be done with love.  ~I Corinthians 16:14

And so I walked in the store around 7:15 AM, on a mission for an apple fritter...or so I thought.

As I entered, I passed an older man who was exiting the store, and I recognized him as someone I had met and chatted with in my driveway at our last couple garage sales over the years.  I couldn't recall his name, but I remembered his story--he was a full time care-giver for his wife who had dementia.

As we passed, I met his eyes and offered up a cheery "hello".  He didn't have any cheer, but he returned the greeting as we walked our opposite directions.

But when I pulled my head out of the doughnut case with a fritter in-hand, there he was again, in front of me in the aisle, with his back to me.  I felt a nudge in my heart to go, and so I did.  

Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. (11) Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. (12) Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. (13) Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.  ~Romans 12:10-13 

I touched his arm lightly and said hello again, and he seemed to soften at the interaction with another human.  I reminded him that we had met at my garage sale and asked how his wife was?

He didn't elaborate and spoke very matter-of-factly, but he reminded me of his full-time care for his wife, and I had forgotten that he also lived-with and provided-for his two adult sons, both with special needs.  

His voice cracked when he openly shared with me that it "just gets so lonely, without anyone to have a real conversation with".  He said that five months ago he had moved all of them from their house into a condo.  

My mind flashed for a moment beyond the short sentences he was speaking.  

Can we imagine packing up an entire lifetime of goods/furniture/clothes/stuff for four adults, and downsizing into a condominium...on our own--at the age of (probably) eighty years or more?  

There was something more than a sadness in his words, and something stronger than a loneliness in his spirit...almost a desperation.  He needed to be having the conversation (and hug) that we shared by the doughnuts that day.  

I wasn't on an apple fritter mission, I was on a human-hospitality mission.

Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels.  ~Hebrews 13:2  

I locked eyes with him and reminded him that God sees him in this difficult and exhausting season of life, and he agreed.  He said that he does know the Lord, and he "talks to Him" a lot...but that he has felt like God hasn't been "hearing him" lately.

"He hears you", I said.  "He sent you proof of that today, in the form of a friend--me."  

I reminded my new friend (who seemed to be standing a bit taller now) that sometimes God uses the Bible (His Word) to speak to us, and sometimes He uses His people.  And sometimes, He uses both. 

I had just been reading Psalm 40 earlier that morning, and using my phone, I shared God's hope with him there, as we stood in the grocery store aisle by the doughnuts at 7:30 A.M. 

"Listen to how the Lord hears you", I said:

I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. 
(2) He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. 
(3) He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him. 
(4) Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord...  ~Psalm 40:1-4

I wasn't trying to make him cry, but he did.  
That's the way it goes when our holy God bends down close to us. 

~~~

We ended the conversation with my invitation for him and his wife to come over one day soon for supper, and I meant it when I asked.  
I knew he meant it when he said that would be "nice".  
He said he would speak to his wife (and I to my husband), and we agreed that my husband would reach out to him for scheduling.

I left the grocery store with so much more than an apple fritter.  God had done something special, and I knew it.  My friend knew it too.  

~~~

If we wonder if the Lord sees us in our wilderness, in our struggles, in our loneliness--He does.  Our God will make Himself known to us any way He pleases, and sometimes we are the recipient of God's tender touch...and sometimes we are the ones reaching out with the hospitality of it to another.

Lord, awaken our sensitivity to move in the YOUR direction today.  We are Your servants and there are those that need You today.  Help us to SEE them and to love them.  Amen.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.  ~Matthew 5:9

~~~

Does it sound foreign or crazy or even unsafe to invite a stranger over to dinner?  

In my defense--it wasn't my idea.  

And if I had any quandary about carrying-out God's dinner plans with the man from the grocery store and his wife, the Lord confirmed them in a devotional I "happened" to read a day or two later:

Hospitality is important to God, and it should extend to more than just family members.  Friends, acquaintances, and even complete strangers should be beneficiaries as well.  When is the last time you invited someone new to sit at your dinner table?  Why not invite someone who needs a break to come visit and be pampered?

Some people's lives are difficult every hour of every day, and they would benefit greatly from some good old fashioned hospitality... We live in a world that teaches us to fear strangers, Lord.  Show me ways I can show them hospitality instead. 

~Devotions from the Kitchen Table, by Stacy Edwards

~~~

That settles it: Let's make plans for dinner with someone.  
What's on the menu?  A heaping plate of hospitality.

  • When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality.  ~Romans 12:13 
  • Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. (13) But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, (14) and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”  ~Luke 12:12-14
  • When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.  ~Mark 6:34

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