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Welcome
Richard Dawson, 5 February 2014
What makes you feel welcome in a place? What makes you feel like coming back? My parents had friends in Auckland who we visited almost every year. They were interesting friends and I got on with their children well but what really sticks in my memory about those friends is the outright passion with which the wife, in particular, greeted me when we would arrive after usually a very long drive. She would usually burst out of the front door, her face a picture of joy and enthusiasm, smiling as if we’d turned up with her lotto winnings and smother me with a big hug saying something like ‘O Richard you’ve grown so much since last year!’ Finally there would be a sloppy kiss on the side of the face and then she’d move on to the next family victim… sorry, member! I thought I hated this. I thought I really didn’t want this but actually, it allowed us to relax in her presence and in her house. The message we got was—all this is yours. Be at home! Go anywhere you want. Do what you want. Our house is your house. And, we did! In the faith we can say with even more conviction ‘Our house is your house. All that God has given us, is yours too if you want it!’ But do we? More to the point ‘How do we?’ Perhaps our greatest weakness is how we first interact with people who are visitors to our shores—those who walk through the doors for the first time putting a first tentative toe into the waters of our Christian community. Do they feel as if we really want them there; as if we are happy to see them; as if we are thrilled with their presence? Jesus is thrilled to have us in the kingdom. Can we be thrilled to welcome others?
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