Hospitality

So after two days of driving 1200 miles including 6 hours to get through Chicago on Friday night,(8 inches of snow at rush hour) I checked into a Day's Inn in beautiful  Warroad MN...  Getting ready to go out on the ice of Lake of the Woods for the better part of next week...when to my surprise after some wings and a Leinie's in the Hotel grill, I started back to my room to get my tackle together, when a patron of the grill sees my Penquin's stocking cap and says, "the Penquins"...."why are you wearing that hat?"...
Before you know it, my new friends from Crookston Mn. who are in the same motel because their sons are playing hockey against the local Warroad team say to me " sit down, let us by you a beer.  You look like you're not really ready to leave this establishment."  Before the evening is complete, I attend the hockey game with my new friends, who turn out to be (what else) Lutheran, and they introduce me to all the other parents of the players as their new friend, Pastor Bill....I stick around, greet the players offering them all the encouragement that Coach Diehm has to offer, and I ponder.............invitation, hospitality, ...the hallmarks of being Christian, being human...I said to Dave and Dave and Mike... "You have made my day times ten!!!"  Honestly, I try every day to be hospitable to others and I sometimes feel like I miss the mark, but to have it come back to me  in the middle of "nowhere" ( apologies Warroad)  I believe more than ever, that the greatest thing we can do for another person is to help them to know they matter and that they can be included in the important places of our lives ( like a worshiping community or a child's hockey game)
If nothing else, on this sabbatical, this day will be a confirmation of my most cherished belief. Asking a stranger into your world is truly life-giving... This stranger is somebody, because of the care of others. Thanks be to God!