What do you think of when you read the word hospitality?
The dictionary provides two specific descriptions of the word hospitality. The first one, the one which is most familiar to us today, is the concept of welcoming guests and strangers with kindness, often with food and possibly also with accommodation.
But it is the second definition that I particularly like and this is the word ‘receptiveness’.
Receptiveness suggests an attitude of openness and availability, a preparedness to be generous in every circumstance.
Generosity is a way that we can choose to live, a way that we can exhibit the compassion and love of God every day and in every situation.
Peter admonishes us to do so and in fact goes even further to suggest that we should not just wait until we are called to be hospitable but that we should offer hospitality to others.
1 Peter 4:9 (NIV)
Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.
Let’s pray that the spirit of generosity and hospitality is one that will pervade our thinking and our actions.