Swing the Gate Wide Open
A reading for Friday, January 17, 2014: John 2:1-12
Over the years I have discovered that one of the key ingredients to ministry with people is hospitality. There is just something about welcoming a person by sharing food and drink together that takes away barriers and makes folks comfortable. How often do we share a meal with our friends and our family?
Perhaps the most important thing to pay attention to when it comes to hospitality is how wide open we swing the gate of welcome. How welcome do we make people feel? Do we go overboard in sharing hospitality? It's one thing to welcome someone, but the more extravagantly we do it the more people will feel our hospitality. Hospitality is one of the areas of ministry in which we can go all out.
Jesus' first public miracle is simply an act of hospitality. Jesus goes all out. He swings the gate of welcome with food, and especially drink, wide open. There is no mistaking it. Even the wine steward is surprised by the abundance of the hospitality. From such a place as this, then Jesus is able to begin his ministry.
God's people celebrate abundance. We are connected to the world through hospitality. We are connected to God in the same way. Swing the gate wide open today and share in God's amazing hospitality and you will demonstrate the glory of our God.
Over the years I have discovered that one of the key ingredients to ministry with people is hospitality. There is just something about welcoming a person by sharing food and drink together that takes away barriers and makes folks comfortable. How often do we share a meal with our friends and our family?
Perhaps the most important thing to pay attention to when it comes to hospitality is how wide open we swing the gate of welcome. How welcome do we make people feel? Do we go overboard in sharing hospitality? It's one thing to welcome someone, but the more extravagantly we do it the more people will feel our hospitality. Hospitality is one of the areas of ministry in which we can go all out.
Jesus' first public miracle is simply an act of hospitality. Jesus goes all out. He swings the gate of welcome with food, and especially drink, wide open. There is no mistaking it. Even the wine steward is surprised by the abundance of the hospitality. From such a place as this, then Jesus is able to begin his ministry.
God's people celebrate abundance. We are connected to the world through hospitality. We are connected to God in the same way. Swing the gate wide open today and share in God's amazing hospitality and you will demonstrate the glory of our God.
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