“Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained Angels unawares.” Hebrews 13:2
This scripture has taken on a whole new meaning to me. You see, I am kinda selfish with my time and with my friends. Jennifer and I were doing just fine when it was just the two of us. We ate by ourselves and we had lots of time to sit around and study scriptures…alone. We talked about every thing from family, to work, to our past , to our future dreams. But we also talked about our struggles here on the compound, our issues with other ladies, our roommate problems and sometimes we just gossiped to each other because we knew it wouldn’t go any further that our ears. We were content with our friendship. We were comfortable and trusted only each other.
But God had other plans for us. He wanted to stretch us and tug on us and pull us out of our comfort zone. So he brings Aliesha into our lives. Aliesha is young and hungry for God. But we weren’t ready for Him to invade our comfort zone. So we saw her as young and needy. She started eating with us and doing Bible Study with us and sitting with us and walking with us. Jen and I never had time to talk about our “secret stuff” that we couldn’t say in front of anybody else. I felt crowded and a little annoyed. (We’ve been pruned!) So Jen and I talked and we agreed that we didn’t need any other friends around. We acted like we were in charge and we kinda made the decision for God that she didn’t really need us and it was OK for us to pull away! But in reality we were pushing her away.
At one point Jen and I thought that maybe God brought a new friend in our life because we were too comfortable gossiping to each other. Cause we sure didn’t do it when other people were around. (I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.) So we dismissed that revelation from God and pulled away anyhow. About a week later Aliesha finds a new friend and tells Jennifer that she’s younger and has more in common with her so she wasn’t gonna be hanging out with us as much anymore. Did you hear what I heard? Yup–she just called us old!
So I’m not sure if we pushed her away or if God pulled her away- but I know that the short time she was a part of my close circle – She joined the choir and the Bible Study we are leading and she is active in the church! So praise God! He used us even when we had bad attitudes about it. And she doesn’t know – but God used her to pull us out of our comfort zone. This morning Jen and I were talking about this small group that we have been hanging out with the past month and all of the sudden I said, “We’ve been pruned!” God used Aleisha to prune us of our “harmless gossip” and also to preparing us for the group of friends He was bringing into our life.
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