Hebrews 13:2 Good News Translation
2 Remember to welcome strangers in your homes. There were some who
did that and welcomed angels without knowing it.
During our stay in Iowa City while I was working on my
doctorate, I also served as a church elder for the little Adventist church
there. The duties were fairly minimal. Since our pastor had two churches, he
would only come to ours every second week. It frequently became my duty to
preach a sermon on Sabbaths he wasn’t there. An unexpected, but common duty,
one not listed in the Church Manual, was to host Adventist travelers
through the state who needed a room for the night. The telephone number of the
church was the head elder’s number.
One such traveler was an old couple in a beat-up car. They
were missionaries in some far-eastern country who were on furlough and were
headed back to the mission-field. We had a very blessed visit with them. They
shared lots of stories of faith that moved our hearts and served as fodder for
a sermon or two. Evidently, they enjoyed it, too; a couple years later they
stopped by on a second furlough, and we had another rewarding evening. Sylvia loved
visiting with and hosting them. We shared Christmas letters for several years.
On one occasion, such hosting backfired. A young fellow came
in who told us he was a church member from down in Texas. He had the brogue to
match. He arrived in time for lunch and ate ravenously. It was obvious why he
weighed well over 400 pounds. He made some evident slip ups as he was
describing his activities in his home church. For example, he referred to
communion as a sacrament; he ate meat at church potlucks—which rarely happens. [My
Dad remarked on more than one occasion that if someone really wanted to learn
how to prepare vegetarian meals, they should come to a few Adventist potlucks
to find delicious dishes.] When he referred to going to church on Sunday, I
asked him about it. He quickly added that he was only recently baptized and
still used the old terminology, occasionally.
My brother and family happened to be visiting at the time,
and we let the visitor take a nap in the room they were staying in. When we
went to call him for supper, he had disappeared. Later my brother found that
several hundred dollars had been taken from his billfold that had been in the
room while the guest was napping. It was a costly way to discover that our
guest was not one of God’s angels!
Lord, thank You for blessing us with Your “strangers.” May
we not turn away those You send because of one bad experience.
[1] https://dailyverse.knowing-jesus.com/hebrews-13-2
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