When our kids were in college, I worked three months to get us all together for two brief days over spring break. I planned those two days like I planned little else.
About two weeks before our precious time together, I got a letter from a missionary friend. As I opened it, I had a sense of foreboding.
Dear Jill and Stuart,
I know the sort of home you keep and remembered your kind offer of hospitality, and that’s why I have no hesitation asking this favor. My daughter, who is in the States for college, has nowhere to go for spring break, and I took it upon myself to invite her to your home. I know you always have a full house, so I knew that one more wouldn’t make a difference. Thanks in advance.
“Lord, it’s not fair”! my heart cried out. From experience I knew it wouldn’t be just one college girl—it would likely be two other roommates who didn’t have anywhere to go either. (In fact, it ended up being six!) I was grieving the loss of the special two days with our family—because I knew they wouldn’t be our two days anymore. I began my bargaining process with God. “God, I’ll have her for the whole summer. Will that do? Or for two whole weeks next semester.” Of course, there was no response to that.
After a while, I put the letter on my bed and knelt down and prayed. “Lord, I wanted so much for this to be our time as a family. You know that the rest of my life’s always been full of everyone else’s children. This isn’t fair of You.”
When I didn’t hear His voice saying, “Okay! You don’t have to take them this time!” The best response I could come up with was, “Lord, I’ll do it, but don’t ever let them know I didn’t want them here.”
I knew that wasn’t very spiritual, but it was the best I could do. I’ve learned to tell God what I can do, not what I can’t. He accepts us the way we are, not the way we know we should be. And that’s what He did with me. He took me where I was, and the girls never knew I didn’t want them there. Everyone except me had a wonderful break.
Years later, my daughter Judy and I wrote a book together about our relationship. To my amazement, she wrote about that break and that very incident.
What I didn’t know is that she had been struggling with all sorts of problems at that time, and it was one of those girls who I had not wanted there who saw it. I didn’t see it, but this girl whisked my daughter away and helped her deal with her struggles.
We had entertained angels unaware. I sat at the kitchen table that day with Judy and cried. I was able to share with her my struggles that spring break. Later Judy prayed, “I’m thankful, Lord, that it turned out that way, because I don’t know where I’d be if that girl hadn’t helped me.” Now Judy offers hospitality to her own “multitude” of needy people.
There have been so many times when God has brought angels unaware to our home in human form. As we open our homes to the people He brings along, God never forgets that you and your family need ministering, as well.
We think that we spend our lives serving others, but the Lord has a twofold plan. He wants us to learn how to serve others and become more like Him. And then He turns around our serving and our situations to heal us, to care for us, and to grow us up, often through the very people we have helped.
Always be willing to open your home. You never know when you might be entertaining angels unaware!
