We have had a visitor from Illinois for the last week: a friend of Marian's who she last saw in the sixth grade in South Bend, Indiana. Marian and she just left for her return home. This has given me cause to think about hospitality.

I have heard that Muslims value hospitality greatly, and their tenets compel them to offer it to strangers who come into their midst. But what if the strangers don't come? We have many visitors to our church, but most of them are very much like us. They don't stand out.

Glenn has said to me that one of the reasons we don't have many (any?) black members or visitors is that during the Civil War, Presbyterians would not condemn slavery. Do you suppose they still hold that against us to this day? I guess there has to be some reason why they don't come.

Could it be that we don't welcome them as well as we could. When we visited here, we were invited to lunch by one of the members. Jesus said, "The King [the Son of Man, come in His glory]will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'" Further, he says that whatever we didn't do, we didn't do for Him.

At least, we offer them a coffee drink at no charge. I hope we do a little more.