It’s been a hard week, but congratulations! You’ve made it to Feel-good Friday. Each Friday I’ll share something to reward us for slogging through the past five days.

The Christmas season is all about hospitality–exchanging gifts, hosting relatives and friends, sharing what we have. If we’re religiously faithful, we attend worship and remember “the reason for the season.” In our quieter moments, we long for the joyful feelings of these days to last beyond December.

There’s hospitality, and then there’s radical hospitality.

Sharing 2.0

I came across this story by Eli Saslow in the Washington Post at a low point this week, when I felt exceptionally stressed-out. A quick glance at the headline told me, “Oh, boy. That one’s gonna make you cry.” I scrolled past it, thinking, “I can’t take that right now.” But something pulled me back. Something said, “Nope, sister. This is exactly what you need right now.”

The older I get, the more I listen to that smart inner voice of mine. 

This story broke me down in the best way, making me shed tears of hope and wonder and joy. It’s a story of radical hospitality, the kind of hospitality that is made possible by community, by being willing to be pulled, step by step, into a deeper relationship with the kind of world we want to see around us. 

It’s a great story to make you feel good this Friday. Just read it with the Kleenex nearby.

May your weekend be as full of blessing as the lives of those in this story.