Therefore Welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.
Romans 15:7
I didn’t know my husband’s grandmother well; she passed away within a year of when we started dating so I only met her a handful of times. I remember that she was really tiny, really sweet, and had a very friendly smile. I remember one other thing too…
It was approximately one week into my relationship with my then-boyfriend, now-husband, and he wanted to take me to a family picnic to meet his family—I had yet to meet his father and brothers. It was just supposed to be a small family picnic, or so I thought!
We were on the way to our local state park and I was grilling him on who all exactly was going to be there. It turned out that not only was his immediate family coming to this picnic, none of whom I had yet met, but also all of his aunts, uncles, grandma, and cousins on his dad’s side of the family. Basically it was a family reunion. We played Frisbee, ate lots of good food, and then as we finished dinner, guitars started appearing, seemingly out of nowhere, and the whole family launched into a gospel music singalong. I thought this stuff only happened on TV! All the times when I had inwardly rolled my eyes at my own grandmother asking if we had singalongs around the campfire (no one does that anymore I had thought!) came back to me in a rush as the scene unfolded before my eyes.
When it started to grow late, everyone started packing up and his grandmother was whisked off to get into the car with several of his aunts who were taking her home. Someone touched me on the sleeve and said that his grandmother had asked to say goodbye to me. I walked over to the car and she gripped my hand tightly, smiling, and said how nice it was to meet me. That was it. But it was more than she needed to do. It was more than a lot of people, anxious to get home, would have done.
She didn’t know we would end up getting married. She didn’t know I would eventually have her great grandson. But she knew and valued making me feel seen, loved, and accepted—all with the simple squeeze of my hand, the courtesy of expressly saying goodbye to me. Maybe that doesn’t seem like that big of a deal to you, but it reminds me of something Jesus would do. He was good at making people feel seen and loved.
Remember that story—Jesus was in a crowd of people and the woman who had been bleeding for many years reached out and touched his garment, hoping to be healed. And she was! Jesus turned and asked who had touched Him. He could have just let it go—it was an inconvenience to stop, but He wanted to call out the person who had faith that just touching His garment would heal her.
Then there’s the story of the little children—the disciples rebuked them and told them to go away, but Jesus said, “Let them come to me.” Jesus cared about everyone—no one was too small or insignificant. He made everyone feel that He cared, and he really did. He didn’t make people feel like assignments or tasks. He made them feel like people.
I think it was kind of like what Mahatma Gandhi must have been thinking when he uttered those sad words: “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” I don’t want to be one of those Christians but I know I have been. I know there have been times when I have been too busy rushing and have let opportunities slip to make someone feel seen. I know I have rushed my husband when he was talking so I could hurry off to bed for the evening. I know I have forgotten how important it can be to pause and do that little act of kindness that makes one feel special and loved and valued by God.
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