As Thanksgiving draws near, many of us will be stocking our pantry in preparation for a bountiful meal with family and friends.
As you prepare for the holiday, think about what kind of feast Jesus would love.
- Then he turned to his host. “When you put on a luncheon or a dinner,” he said, “don’t invite your friends, brothers, relatives, and rich neighbors. For they will repay you by inviting you back.
Instead, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. Then at the resurrection of the godly, God will reward you for inviting those who could not repay you.”
Jesus tells us to provide hospitality to those who are in need and who are unable to return the favor.
Who in your neighborhood or town is in need of your hospitality? Perhaps an elderly person on a limited income and with no family close or someone living on unemployment or on welfare. Remember past Thanksgiving feasts when there was more than enough food prepared to feed the family and how you may have over-eaten? Could you afford to open your home to one or two more? If that doesn’t sound workable to you, why not have a second Thanksgiving feast for those in need of food or of God’s love. There are other avenues. Soup kitchens and shelters are always in need of helping hands and donations of food.
Throughout the Bible God has commanded us to care for the needy.
In the book of Leviticus, written around 1444 B.C, God gave the Hebrew people rules for holy living.
- “When you harvest your crops, do not harvest the grain along the edges of your fields, and do not pick up what the harvesters drop.
It is the same with your grape crop—do not strip every last bunch of grapes from the vines, and do not pick up the grapes that fall to the ground. Leave them for the poor and the foreigners who live among you,
The landowner thus provided food for the needy while giving them the dignity of harvesting their own food.
Around 970 BC Solomon, the wisest man alive, wrote in
- Blessed are those who are generous because they feed the poor.
I want you to share your food with the hungry and to welcome poor wanderers into you homes. Give clothes to those who need them and do not hide from relatives who need your help.
It is obvious that God didn’t mean for us to keep to ourselves and to hoard His blessings. So take stock of the many blessings you have received from God’s hand and open your own hand to those in need of a bountiful meal and loving hospitality.
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