Day Fourteen // March 4 // Welcoming “There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.” – John Holmes –
One of the most powerful ways we’re invited to share in the work of Christ’s hands is to extend those hands in gracious welcome. Particularly to strangers. Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 25:35 should inspire us: “For I was hungry, and you gave me food; I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you welcomed me.” There is an old story originating in a Russian Orthodox monastery in which an older monk tells a younger one: “I have finally learned to accept people as they are. Whatever they are in the world, a prostitute, a prime minister, it is all the same to me. But sometimes I see a stranger coming up the road, and I say, ‘Oh, my Lord, is it you again?’”
