You Invited Me In
How often do we jump out of bed in the morning with our feet hitting the ground so fast that we don’t even remember how we got upright? Then we move on, checking things off of our list as we have breakfast (or don’t—as is often the case), get children to school or begin their lessons, drive ourselves to work, complete phone calls/emails with one person after another, pay the bills, get to the store, entertain the unexpected guest who shows up in our office or on our doorstop or along our path . . . wait a minute. Perhaps that guest is an opportunity. Perhaps that guest has been sent to us to remind us to stop and to see what is actually before us.
In Matthew 25:31–46, Jesus describes the parting of those who have embraced Him and lived out His call to love others from those who, well, have done the opposite. Jesus tells His followers that those who care for others care for Him. At the end of verse 35, Jesus says, “You invited me in.” Whenever we open our hearts to people and help them in the little things and the big things, it is an opportunity to invite Jesus in just as much as it is an opportunity to share Jesus with that person. When we invite Jesus in through these divine appointments, we, ourselves, are blessed beyond measure.
It always seems that it is on the busiest of days that we are “interrupted” the most. Divine appointments are knocking on every door, and we begrudgingly meet them. It also seems that it is on those busiest of days that we forget to depend on God; we forget to spend time with Him; we just try to march on with Him in tow.
Instead of looking at the opportunities that God gives us to bless others, which we at least meet superficially as “good Christian women” so that we can be the hands and feet of Jesus while checking this unexpected item off of our list, what if we were to embrace those opportunities as what they are: divine appointments given to us so that we can invite Christ in? Divine appointments that we are given as another blessed opportunity to sit at His feet? Divine appointments to see Jesus in others so that we not only become Jesus to them, but so they also become Jesus to us?
