I am not a good housekeeper. I suppose I could clean my house, but I don’t have a natural knack for it. I have a couple of my friends who keep an immaculate house. You can drop by their house unannounced and their house looks as if they’ve been cleaning for days, all ready for company.
Within the last few years, God has given me the opportunity to open our house for people from our church to come over. I feel so blessed that God allows me this opportunity even though I don’t deserve it. My house is not nice and clean and pretty that anyone would want to come, yet, I am given the privilege of having laughter and noise of friends here.
I am pretty sure that if I attend a big church, our house would not be used as a meeting place because there would be other families who have nicer houses.
This is a picture of how God gives each of us gifts and places each of us in the Body of Christ to use that gift. The opportunity that I have to practice hospitality despite my unattractive home is really a picture of how God can use anyone, our deficiencies and all. Therefore, serving God by using whatever we have is a privilege, not a burden.
This also reminds me that small churches that remain small are not necessarily “unsuccessful”. The goal of a church is not to be a big church. The goal of a church is to use our gifts to serve one another. I am blessed that God placed me in a small church so I can experience the blessings of hospitality when I otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity.