Entertaining Strangers

The Bible tells us to be hospitable to strangers, but in this day and time, few people are willing to risk taking that command literally. I know I hesitate to put myself or my family in harm's way and I am married to someone who anticipates every possible negative thing that could happen. He is "Mr. Safety" - according to my children - and I tend to agree!

But something happened recently to move us outside our comfort zone. We were at the beach and had walked a long way to see a public pavilion with an unusual architecture. Bob decided to step away for a minute and I stood in the main area, watching as some college guys sat studying. I commented that they must not be on spring break if they had to study, but they assured me they were - making a tour on their vacation from Indiana University. I noticed they had Bibles, journals and Christian books when they pointed out my UGA shirt and asked what sites they should see when the visited their next stop, Atlanta. Bob walked back up. I asked where they would be staying so I could recommend some convenient sites and they hesitated a bit, looking at each other as if to say, "Should we tell her?"

"We're sleeping in our car," one of them offered. "Not in Atlanta, you're not," I shot back. I can't help it. I am everyone's mother. They had mentioned visiting the aquarium and I explained that the downtown area is not a safe place to sleep in your car. They assured me they'd be fine, but Bob and I made eye contact. We had to help these guys.

"Would you like to stay at our house?" I asked. "That would be great!" they said immediately. And with that, we had 4 college guys set to follow us back to Atlanta that night and stay in our home for a couple of nights.

Oddly enough, Bob and I didn't feel frightened. We felt excited. We were going to get to use our gift of hospitality and get to know new people in the family of God. We felt like the Lord had sent us way down the beach to find these guys. And I had on my UGA shirt, which I seldom wear, so they knew where we were from and could ask about Atlanta.

The next few days turned out to be wonderful. We had in-depth conversations into the wee morning hours and shared some great times. We even made S'mores over a fire and sang songs. We became fast friends with these terrific boys and had such a peace that God brought us all together.

It was a blessing to have college students in our home again. We miss our own college daughter and her friends hanging out here all the time - but God gave us an opportunity to fill that longing for those relationships. It was a rare experience of extending hospitality to strangers, yet it became more of a blessing to us than to them. And those strangers became friends.