| Hebrews 13:2 – “Do not neglect hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.” |
Well, we came in the back door last night, unloaded the car, and sorted all the dirty clothes from our duffle bags and suitcase. Wednesday night, we slept in Tucumcari, New Mexico, and Tuesday night in Moab, Utah. Last night, we slept in our very own bed. As John Denver wrote, “Hey, it’s good to be back home again.”
We took a driving trip through southwestern Colorado, trekking across the Texas panhandle to get there. We saw snow capped peaks, waterfalls, elk herds, muskrats, prairie dogs, deer (one crossed the road in front of us, narrowly missing two cars).
For me, it was somewhat of a nostalgia trip. My parents took us camping when I was in junior high. My grandmother Hazel and my uncle Johnny Mac went with us. Eight adults in a pop up camper (Starcraft) that had three double beds and an “add-a-room” tent that attached to the front of the camper.
When it rained (and it did), the “add-a-room tent roof collected water, and you had to get a pole and push up on the canvas to dump the pool of water gathering above your head. If not, the weight of the water could collapse the tent on you while you were sleeping peacefully below it.
We all had responsibilities when we set up and broke camp. The whole trip was so memorable, that in the summer after my second year of college, Carl Amend and I retraced those steps together, with only his Chevy Nova and a tent.
We cooked some hamburger helper that night, and shared it with a man who wandered by earlier and chatted with us. He came back to eat with us after we invited him. He ate, thanked us, and walked on his way. To this day, when I read the verse about “Be hospitable to strangers, for by it some have entertained angels unawares” I think about that man and wonder if he was a heavenly visitor.
The best part of this trip came from our encounters not with wildlife, but with the humans. We found a church in Montrose to worship with on Sunday morning. We met some wonderful locals in town that shared helpful information about the area. We met people when we were hiking, from Virginia, Ohio, Texas, Utah, Belgium and Connecticut. All with interesting stories to tell.
Father in heaven, thank You for the kindness of strangers, in Jesus’ name, Amen!
-Jeff Beall
