For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; (Matthew 25:35 NAS95)
I never anticipated seeing myself as a stranger in my younger years. As I entered my host country of Poland, I realized not only was I a stranger, but now the word foreigner applied to me. I entered with anxiety and much prayer not knowing what to expect.
I crossed an ocean and, in that moment, how I perceived myself changed. God hadn’t changed, and His Kingdom still encompassed the globe as well as my host country, but the world around saw me as a stranger, a foreigner, one who wasn’t from among them. An experience like this drives the citizenship card, or at least the thinking around citizenship, to a different level. The Spirit had me hear Paul say, your “citizenship is in heaven.”
Reality hit!
My passport, no matter my country origin, comes from the Kingdom of Heaven. God never ceased to care for me even in those early days of living in and getting to know my host culture. It took a while for that to root in my soul, but God kept whispering and addressing my fears with His provision.
What happened? My fellow citizens of heaven hosted me, gave me food, made me aware of culture distinctives and became my friends. They made me a part of their lives and feel connected, even though they had to work to hear their language through my accent and exercise patience to understand me. They reached out and took me in even though, as the Bible would say, I was a “stranger who sojourns” among them.
Poland met me with hospitality. God showed me through my experience that He knew my needs, had my back, and wanted me there. God started bringing ministry opportunities to me, and that never stopped, and still hasn’t even though my country of residence has changed two times.
Jesus held true to His promise in the Gospels that I would receive “many times as much at this time and in the age to come” (Luke 18:29-30). God loves strangers and He showed me that in concrete ways through my journeys in Europe. I cannot count the many ways I received hospitality in the way of food, homes, friends, sisters and brothers.
Experiences like these not only rooted my citizenship in heaven deeply but opened me to loving strangers in the way of the Kingdom economy by opening our home to them as well.
For Reflection
“When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the LORD your God.” (Leviticus 19:33-34 NAS95)
- How much of a role does hospitality to strangers play in your life? How do you think of expressing hospitality?
- What does it mean to take the stranger in or how do you understand God’s heart toward them?
