I recently learned that my friends and I would be traveling to my hometown around the same time. And of course, we started making plans.
On the first day our plan seemed relatively simple. We’d go on the same excursion but they’d leave from their resort and I would bring my daughter to meet them before we went, for a number of reasons. Yay… easy, right?
Our friends had invited us. Yet when we got to the security gate, it took about 20 minutes in the tropical heat, holding up lines and trying to convince the security guard that we were supposed to be there and even with a call from the main desk, that was not sufficient. The call had to come from the security inside the property. We were eventually allowed to enter the property under strict guidelines.
While I was frustrated with the process, I understood the security was simply doing their jobs. You could be invited by others, but you must also be welcomed by them (in this case, the security).
The very next day, we were to be guests of the hotel for a few days. While we arrived a bit early, our names were on the guest lists, and the process was vastly different. We arrived, told them our names, and were ushered through within a matter of moments. We were fully welcomed.
This has gotten me thinking, and maybe because I’d seen the sentence recently ‘Sometimes you’re invited and still not welcomed’…
Are there times you have received the invitation, but your heart tells you that you’re not welcomed or you won’t be welcomed?
I’m so grateful that is not what happened with my friends. I was both invited and welcomed.
And, I’m even more grateful that’s not what happens with Jesus. I’m thinking specifically of the verse in Matthew 11:28 that says ‘Come to Me all those who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest’.. what an invitation.. and the greatest blessing in all of this is when I choose to take up this invitation, I am welcomed with open arms.
Has there ever been a time when you received the invitation, but you knew you wouldn’t be welcomed with open arms?
I’ve been there too. More often than I’d like to say.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you that when you invite us, you fully welcome and embrace us. Help us to let go of some of the hurts that we are carrying around from circumstances of not being welcomed into various places or with others. Thank you for your invitation that we can come and be welcomed by you, with open arms, no matter the situation.