Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. --Hebrews 13:2

Welcoming the other, the stranger, the guest, is both a risk and an invitation. The risk is of violation and danger. The invitation is to widen the conversation and receive the possibility of divine blessing. Abraham's hospitality to the three men led to their miraculous pronouncement that he and his wife, Sarah, who had outlived her childbearing years, would have a child.

Strangers can sometimes open our world to mystery and even miracle. They can help us to see what we otherwise would not see. It is human to prefer like-minded people, to stick to our own neighborhood, economic class, race or religion. But if we limit ourselves to the familiar, we may miss the richness of a community enhanced by the presence of the stranger, and the spiritual bond that can be formed among the most unlikely people. ...To practice hospitality is to open the door of our own hearts and sometimes to be met by angels.


Read another meditation on the stained glass art in the exhibit "Images in Reflection: A Collaboration of Art and Prayer," on view at the American Bible Society in New York.