In the future I will show hospitality to others. I can’t do it now. I still live with my parents. The house I live in isn’t super nice. My couch isn’t even that comfortable. Being hospitable is for people with extra money and lots of extra space in their houses. People with “guest rooms.”
Before this past weekend I believed this to be true, but my view of hospitality has been changed. And it wasn’t changed by a little old lady. It wasn’t changed by an adult at all. The person who showed me true hospitality was a 14 year old girl.
This story begins on Valentine’s Day. Our team had to leave the little home we’ve established here at Vision Nicaragua for two nights. We moved into the Pastor’s house and were given a queen sized mattress and a full sized mattress. Eight of us tried to squeeze on. Some of us were comfortable, and then there’s me.
I’m the type of person who moves around trying to find the perfect position before I fall asleep, so the 10 inches of space I was given wasn’t cutting by. It was probably around 5 AM when I grabbed my pillow and moved to the cold tile floor. The next morning at breakfast Rebecca, the pastor’s daughter came to me and said “Kori, necesitas dormir en mi cama.”
You need to sleep in my bed.
When you walk into Rebecca’s room, there’s a bed, and a dresser. And that’s pretty much it. This 14 year old girl has 416764783 times less things than I do. Her bed is half of her posessions and its not much more than a cot, but she gave it up for me. She barely even knows me. We don’t even speak the same language! Never have I ever seen Jesus’ love shine through someone as much as it did through Rebecca in that moment.
Hospitality isn’t when you let someone stay in your guest room. It’s when you give up all that you have so that another person can be comfortable. I can be hospitable.
“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
