The Hospitable Leader DevotionalExemplo

For various historical reasons in the Christian faith, we frequently devalue the importance of the created, natural, physical world. However, God doesn’t just care about the “spiritual,” a-physical natures that we each have (souls, spirits), but also our physical nature. That’s why Jesus died and rose again bodily, so that we can also die and rise again renewed in both body and soul. We see the importance of the physical world and environments in Genesis, as God thought it was “good,” and he valued not just the pragmatic or utilitarian elements of the physical world, but also the aesthetic and beautiful elements. The trees were “pleasing to the eye and good for food.” Thus, there’s something about the physicality of environments that are not just pleasing to God, but also effective in creating meaningful moments.

It can be no coincidence that God communed, in a unique way with Adam and Eve, in such a beautiful place as the Garden of Eden. In fact, once the ugliness of sin entered the physical and spiritual dimensions of earthly creation, God’s presence wasn’t there in the same kind of way.

God’s goal was to use willing people, such as Abraham, to bring back the beauty, for where there is beauty, there is communion with God. Even though the ugliness was dishonoring to God and a result of rebellion against God, God didn’t give up; he dug his feet into the mission of redemption, sent his incarnate Son into the world to redeem it from its physical and spiritual shackling to sin, and provided a way through his resurrection to have glorification both bodily and spiritually. God wanted redeemed environments, redeemed places, where he could be with his people. It’s in the hospitable environments that we can best commune with others.

In an analogous way, we are also responsible for creating hospitable and beautiful environments in the midst of ugliness. When we have a hospitable space, we can more freely enter into relationships with others. However, when we’re mired in the muck of frustration, confusion, slander, gossip, and other swamps, communion with others isn’t easy. Thus, an essential part of our callings and leadership, as given by us to God, is to work the soil, create beautiful places, and to be able to enter into meaningful, truth-filled environments with those people.