Our Welcome and Reward

"To love is to make one's heart a swinging door."
- Howard Thurman

I am drawn to welcoming people. It is a habit that I was taught as a child, and it has shaped my personality fundamentally. I am a product of my upbringing and I have continued to practice welcoming people from a child into adulthood. What I was taught as a child regarding welcoming people represents an essential part of my family's core beliefs which includes showing hospitality and care for others.

How do you welcome people and what were you taught about welcoming people as a child? How has what you learned about welcoming people formed your personality and informed you about your family's nucleus?

As a believer in God, what does it mean to welcome somebody and what does it mean to be a welcoming congregation as believers in God? Taking in the Bible reading from Matthew 10:40-42, we can hear in our minds, the expressed will of Jesus about becoming welcoming people. Why was it important to Jesus to teach his followers to be welcoming? Was Jesus teaching his followers to be agreeable and pleasant to everyone, providing for their needs to live well?

What were the responsibilities and effects of welcoming others? Whoever welcomes people according to Jesus' teachings in Matthew are faced with the prospect of how they show their faith in him through welcoming his "people."

As you consider the teachings of Jesus in Matthew 10 concerning how we should welcome people and prayerfully incorporate them into your daily life, be aware of their effects on those whom you welcome and what those welcoming acts represent about you as a believer in God? Amen.