In a weary and wavering land, your home can be a place of love, encouragement, and comfort.
By Barbara Rainey
Have you ever visited an American Embassy while traveling in a foreign country?
You can’t miss it: Old Glory flaps proudly in the overseas air. As you walk through the doors, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and other national hero paintings welcome you “home.” It’s familiar, and it’s also safe. Once on the embassy’s soil, you are governed by the laws of your home country.
If you were traveling, you’d head to the American Embassy for help; the staff are there to ensure American citizens are protected and cared for in a faraway land.
Did you know that your home is to be an embassy too?
In this weary and wavering world, Paul exhorts us, “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us” (2 Corinthians 5:20). That isn’t just a command for when we’re in the workplace or out running errands. It’s a definition of who God has designed us to be.
And that makes your home an embassy.
We belong to another time, another place, another King
Do you realize that your home may be one of your best opportunities to reach and influence people for Christ? So many people today are longing for a place where they are loved and encouraged. A place where they feel comfortable and not judged. Your home can be that place.
Yet too often we wait to invite others into our home—until the rooms are clean, a meal is ready, the children are well-behaved, or we have free time. We must remember that our homes do not belong to us. They are given to us by God to steward well for His purposes. Instead of waiting for the right moment to entertain, we need to expect God to use our homes to put Him on display in the “dailyness” of life to anyone who enters.
Your home is an embassy of the kingdom of heaven in this world where we temporarily dwell. Though you are American, you are first and foremost a follower of Jesus Christ, a child of the King. We really belong to another time, another place, another King. While some days it’s hard to focus on the eternal and invisible, it’s more important than ever to root ourselves in a security that will last forever.
Just like the American Embassy waves the flag to declare safety and comfort within, we need signs and sounds and recipes and attitudes that declare the haven of our homes as an Embassy of the King. When the UPS man delivers, when neighbors stroll by, when guests arrive at your home, we want them to know that we aren’t just another family. We are a family that belongs to Yahweh, and are committed to using our home, lives, and resources to make Him known.
Here are five ways to make your home this kind of embassy:
1. Practice hospitality.
Simple hospitality goes a long way in our modern world. Create the space to allow international students, a transitioning family, a youth intern, out of town friends, or even total strangers a place to stay as needed (check out couchsurfers.com or airbnb.com for some ways to broaden your horizons on those to whom you show hospitality). Hospitality shows guests much more than generous and friendly treatment; your kindness ultimately shows them Jesus.
Consider Dave and Lida, empty nesters who own a four-bedroom home. They keep their extra bedrooms clean and ready to be filled with whoever might need them. Their town is known for a certain type of medical treatment that families travel across the country for.
Dave and Lida heard of a patient who was traveling frequently to the local treatment center, so they offered the patient and his family a free stay in their home for the duration of his treatments. They haven’t cured his sickness or paid off his medical bills, but they’ve given him shelter, food, rides, friendship—home—in the middle of very difficult times.
2. Love your neighbors.
Here’s a test: You get home from a long day of work, pull into the garage, and put your car in park. Then what? Do you immediately hit that garage door button to close the door? Sounds silly, but what if you left it open?
Are you making room and time to say hello to those living around you? Instead of sitting in front of the TV after dinner, take a slow stroll down your street. Say hello to everyone you pass.
Don’t hide behind your backyard fence. Let your kids play in the driveway and front yard too; invite the neighbor kids over to play in your yard. Make friends with those living on your street. Trade lawn responsibilities when someone is out of town, collect mail, roll their trashcan out to the curb.
One family hosted a cul-de-sac cookout when they moved into a new neighborhood. It was so much fun that their neighbor