Pam's Perambulation

When I know someone is coming to visit,  I like to make preparations.  Well I need to!  We have a good tidy up and clean.  I want people to feel comfortable, and I suppose to have a good impression.

I suppose how you prepare depends on who is coming to visit.

This weeks lectionary readings involve visits from God.

In Genesis, Abraham is sitting in the entrance to his tent, no doubt resting and sheltering from the heat of the day.  As he does so, he sees three men standing out in the heat.  He rushes to them, and invites them into his home, where they can rest, refresh and shelter from the sun.  So Abraham and Sarah feed them with the best that they have.

As they sit there, it transpires that one of these guests is the Lord, and he brings Sarah and Abraham the news they have been longing for – in less than a year, they will have a son.

Abraham didn’t know who these men were when he invited them in.  The moral of the story?  You never know when you might be entertaining God – and what God might have to say to you when he comes to call.

Who are the people that we could be inviting in? To our homes, our lives, our churches?  And what might they have to say to us?  What could they teach us?  Was has God to say to us, if only we invite him in and sit with him whilst he has chance to tell us?

In Luke, Jesus calls on Martha and Mary.  Now they knew full well who was visiting them – and perhaps that is part of the problem.  Martha goes into a tailspin.  Jesus is here in her house!  If Jesus was here, there were things to do and everything had to be just so.  So much so that she wanted Mary to get up and help her.  I’m sure the last thing Jesus needed was to come to a house of frenetic activity!

Jesus reminds her of what is important – not running around to put on a good show, but taking time to stop and listen to Jesus, to spend time with him and hear what he has to say.

Really when people come to visit us, they are coming to see us – not our house.  They have come to spend time with us, not to assess the quality of our housekeeping.

The important thing, Jesus says, is to listen to him, to spend time with him.

God comes to call on us every day.  He longs for us to ask him in, and to listen and spend time with him.

After all – who knows what we will hear him say to us!

~ by pamjw on July 13, 2010.

Posted in God, Lectionary
Tags: Genesis 18:1-10, God, listen, Luke 10:38-42