Welcome aka Hospitality

"If we are to love our neighbors, before doing anything else we must see our neighbors. With our imagination as well as our eyes, that is to say like artists, we must see not just their faces but the life behind and within their faces. Here it is love that is the frame we see them in.."  | Frederick Buechner, Beyond Words

"Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God."| Romans 15:7

"Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them space where change can take place....We cannot force anyone to such a personal and intimate change of heart, but we can offer the space where such a change can take place."  –Henri Nouwen

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Welcoming the stranger is welcoming Jesus.  Jesus paid attention to what was going on around him and especially to those people he encountered on a daily basis.  He modeled for us a new way of seeing the other - the way of love, compassion, and forgiveness.