My Heart, A Welcome Home.

I meandered around the courtyard yesterday, church goers and attenders and newcomers strolling to and fro.  I watched, read faces, analyzed walks, then created an approach.  Some woman stood singlely by a post, waiting for another.  Others bee-lined to the cafe or sanctuary, sunglasses covering their nose. Others clasped childs hands, or strolled confidently.

My eyes were captured by the bee-liners.  The women covered with their own lashes, or hugging their purses tightly.  There was a noticable fear in them, approaching the worship grounds.  Scared for how to fit, who to see, how to behave, where to go.  I know them, because I know that look in me.

I talked to the wanderers, or the ones standing at the info booth, looking for links, for lifelines, for a place to connect, a niche, a home.

And I sat in the pew, minutes later, and thought about Jesus.  And thought about strangers.  And thought about visitors. And thought about me; us.

Who are we to strangers?  Who are we to visitors? In our hearts, in our home, in our church?

Women walking into church, feeling unaware, feeling vulnerable, feeling insecure.  Who greets and welcomes the strangers, like angels unaware?  (Hebrews 13:2)

Robert Boyd Munger titled his book My Heart, Christ's Home.  I sat in the pew and thought: Is my heart, a welcome home?

Is my heart a welcome home to strangers?  Is my heart a welcome home to those it meets, those it greets?  Do they feel a sense of rest there?  Do they find it shelter, find it home?

Do they read that on my face?  In my greeting, in my smile?

Do I walk around and visit strangers, with a heart that is a welcome home?

~~
Note: Think of this too, as an encouragement.  I never realized how much my church was a church of visitors, and greeting this day reminded me how much I need to be heart that is a welcome home to those who approach the throne of worship.  What a difference it may make to have a hug, a word, a handshake, as they come to the church, to my heart, to Christ's home.