Showing posts with label hospitality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hospitality. Show all posts

Saturday 19 April 2014

Do You Know If You Are Home?

Is Anyone Home?



Everything seemed normal at Jack and Lorna Jensen's place. It was such a pretty little house along a quiet street and passersby at this time of year would sometimes check to see if her tulips were up yet. Everyone knew that her flowers were the cheeriest, the healthiest looking in the neighbourhood, and it was a sight to behold once they were all budding. The blooms didn't stop with tulips either. Once they were beginning to fade other flowers took their place, and it was an un-going session until blankets of snow created a new type of beauty.
It wasn't only outside though, that everything appeared to be normal. As the sky paled to peach and an azure blue, the alarm went of somewhere in a bedroom. Soon that was followed by lights switching on here and there, the clink of dishes on the table and other sounds that came when the couple started their day.
The ping of the microwave was next, followed by the whistle of the kettle. Everything seemed normal. So normal. Soon the sound of Jack and Lorna's chairs being pushed to the table, and the rustling of thin paper could be heard. Jack's deep baritone read a scripture for their morning devotions, and he prayed.

The days lengthened and grew warmer, but eventually the neighbours noticed that things were not quite the same. Just little things, mind you, but changes none the less. For one thing Lorna wasn't getting around to weeding her tulips! Strange! And when they were faded, they weren't even replaced! Stranger yet! And why was Jack neglecting to mow the lawn? It was always so immaculate; his pride and joy!
Finally someone knocked on the door to investigate. No one was home! They spotted a tape recorder on the table that appeared to automatically rewind and play the same daily sounds from morn until night, then start again the next morning. Robots that looked just like Jack and Lorna went around automatically doing ordinary things.

Does everything seem normal at your place? Are you going through the motions of living a Christian life but the Spirit has moved out and you are on autopilot? Do you know when things began to change? Are the flowers of friendliness and hospitality blooming in your front yard? Are you so used to following the 'correct formula' that you don't sense that the 'abundant life' is only a faint memory?


Wake up!

Thursday 12 December 2013

Hollyhock Haven-Still a Haven in Winter

Hi! You’re going to think I have a one track mind! I’m back on the same topic I wrote on earlier. Talking about tracks it would be pretty hard to make any, footprints in particular, in all the snow around out place. The picture with this post is pretty much how our little red chicken house looks right about now, although it’s not quite that bad. That beautiful, white stuff is gently falling, falling out our wide patio window. There is a mountain of it on the picnic table and the railings, the spruce trees are so heavily laden they are really drooping, but they know how to handle it a lot better than the Manitoba Maples. Last spring you would have heard the sound of lots of cracking branches.

               Well anyway, the topic I had been rambling about earlier was Hollyhock Haven. You’d be hard put to picture any type of flowers in all this snow, but nevertheless just step right inside and enjoy the cozy warmth, then if you so desire you can enjoy the Christmas-card beautiful from behind our glass windows. How about a cup of hot chocolate? Tim Horton’s is the absolute best as far as I’m concerned, but maybe you’d prefer another brand. Would you like French toast for breakfast, a yummy Egg Casserole, or what? Just say the word and I’ll try to be most accommodating. You see, I want you to know that even if it’s cold outside and the snow amazingly deep, there is warm hospitality just inside the door, and plenty of opportunity to make pleasant memories.http://marilynfriesen.webs.com/