Angels Unaware

"Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it" (Heb 13:2).  Yesterday, I believe this passage played out in Tandie's life.

Shortly after I had gotten home, while Tandie and I were in the kitchen talking, the doorbell rang.  I. Opened the door to find a woman standing there with a package of beef bones.  She said, "I met your wife earlier today and I wondered if I could talk with her."  I told her to come on in.

Tandie's eyes grew as big as saucers as her face lit up like a sunrise.  She didn't know the woman's name but remembered her from the Kroger meat counter.  Tandie had to tried to buy some beef bones for a broth she was making and the stranger was on her first day back on the job after staying home with her terminally ill husband for five years.

Kroger did not have any beef bones but the woman said that she would keep an eye out for some.  Tandie tore off part of a bank deposit slip with her name and address, giving it to her should she come across any.  She thought nothing more of it.

But the woman thought a lot about it.  Not having any at Kroger, after her shift, she went to Harps, where she worked until staying home to care for her husband.  She found the bones and brought them to Tandie.  Tandie was so taken by the stranger's kindness that she said, "Oh please, stay and have dinner with us!"

The woman replied, "Only if I can help prepare the meal."  Tandie agree and then quietly said to me, "You'll have to go to tonight's Bible study without me after all.  I understood and replied, "I'll tell them that you stayed home to "entertain an angel unaware."

Actually, I think they were both entertaining Angels that heretofore they had not known.  They both brought a blessing from God to each other as they prepared a meal together, ate together and visited until I got home after the Bible study and another meeting at a little after 10pm.

Neither Tandie nor I have any doubts that God had arranged a divine appointment yesterday.  And I'm convinced that both women were recipients of heavenly blessings sent from God, which is the work of an angel.  The woman acted upon the compassion she felt for Tandie.  Tandie acted upon the gratitude she felt toward the woman.  Both acted upon God's promoting to be hospitable.

The evening was a godsend for both women, either of which could have passed on the opportunity God set before them with conventional endorsement of being too busy and refusing to trust strangers.  However, both would have missed out on the blessing God has in store when we "entertain angels unaware."  Jus' Say'n.