The Lasting Rewards of Hospitality

My uncle, a Vietnam Vet, sent us this video about how President Nixon threw a dinner -- still the largest dinner ever held at the White House -- for former POWs.

What was touching to me was how meaningful this memory is to these men, even after forty years and Watergate.

If you want to change the world, invite someone to your home for a meal.  But not just anyone.

Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”  (Luke 14:12-14, NIV)

And that's a far greater reward even than creating warm memories.