We often host travelers in our home through a housesitting app, a brave chance to meet up with strangers, invite them to care for our home and pets, and then overlap with them for a few days or weeks- getting to know each other’s quirkiness and culture. This year we have hosted German students for a few weeks, a traveler from India several times who finds his home on the go, a Norwegian family member, a couple from Ecuador who teach tango, and recently an Australian woman who is traveling for a year on a shoestring budget. It takes trust and goodwill to both enter into an unknown environment and also to invite a perfect stranger into your home.
This exchange creates a sacred environment in which to practice the ethic of hospitality and to receive the gifts of another. Here we are in the Christmas season- we once again revisit a timeless story of a poor woman and man traveling and seeking refuge from inn to inn. They are repeatedly turned down, and end up staying in a barn with the animals. The woman gives birth to a baby who has received the prophetic blessing of being “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, everlasting Savior, Prince of peace.” No wonder folks were suspicious to open their doors to this audacious prophecy.
We live in a society where we are trained to be guarded and suspect. We like to vet people with whom we do business. We look for good reviews or recommendations. A random stranger knocking at the door is not going to get very far.
What strikes me about this story from 2000 years ago is that things are not as you would expect. The holy appears in the lowly. The one who is foretold is not dressed in bedazzled apparel but is naked, squirming, and fussy. There is no fanfare or red carpets. Instead: smelly shepherds, barn animals, and wisemen who bring unhelpful gifts. An angel who has a big mouth and a big heart. A star which guides and foretells.
In this waiting, expectant season, how do we allow the sacred to break into the ordinary? How are good tidings of great joy made known to us? Where do we notice the stranger, the traveler and truly open ourselves to them?
May this season not overwhelm with hype or hypnotic trappings. May there be room for quiet and connection. May the traveler and wayfarer find in you a welcome, holy habitat. Come, come to the birth intended for all.
Way Opening Workshops 