Prayer as Hospitality

Some things never change! To mention just one example, I'm continuing my pattern of reading several books simultaneously. I try to "be good" and finish one before I start the next; but what it all comes down to is that sometimes I'm in the mood for different kinds of reading--sometimes I want something lighter, sometimes I want something deeper--sometimes I know I only have a few minutes to read, sometimes I can dive into a book for an hour. So, in the end, I always have several books going at the same time.

One of the books that I'm reading and really enjoying now is A Celebration of Children by Edith Schaeffer. The book belongs to my mother who just finished reading it and passed it along to me. Recently I read something in it that stood out to me, primarily because it combined two things that I often think about and have written about on this blog: prayer and hospitality. Here is what Edith wrote...

We are commanded that a part of our growing Christian life is openness to others, that is, hospitality. Now hospitality is often thought of as serving a meal. We think of hospitality as giving someone in our own "circle" a warm welcome.

Think of prayer as another form of hospitality. As with everything we are to do, finiteness makes it impossible to invite the whole city into our space, but we are to include some. Prayer takes time and energy and is a matter of choice. As we each take a notebook and begin writing down the names of those for whom we want to intercede, we will soon discover how much choice is involved, and we will worship more deeply our infinite intercessor, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is not limited and does not have to choose which one to pray for today.

That day as Jesus took the little children on His lap and prayed for them, He did not have every child in the world on His lap, because at that time He was truly man as well as truly God. He then could show us, as our example, how we are to give hospitality in prayer for the ones who come to us, into our minds, into our homes.