I’d like to revisit a statement from a couple weeks ago in Jesus’ depiction of the kingdom of God and His emphasis on kindness to others. He mentions being welcoming toward a stranger. What is it to offer welcome to another? Maybe it’s easier to explain it by what it’s not.

A university professor I once knew — who craved uninterrupted research time — had a mat outside his front door that read, “Is this visit necessary?” That might be a good antonym for welcome — inconvenience. Nothing like feeling you’re a bother, in the way, or not worth the time.

A new dental assistant last week actually apologized to me for being from California. “I lived in Seattle awhile,” she defended. I told her no one has a corner on North Idaho. It’s just that people “from” here don’t want to see it change too much.

If and when Priest River has to add another traffic light, it’ll be a dire day for some. I remember it happening in Wasilla, Alaska. The new light at the corner to the new McDonald’s. At the time I was one of the influx crowd — but I don’t remember feeling I wasn’t wanted.

It was heartening this week to hear a woman in the store — she and her mother recent arrivals from Arkansas — say, “We love this little town. The people are so nice.” Someone’s been doing their job.

To make welcome is to embrace. Which is nothing more than drawing one into a circle. An embrace says to that person I am not afraid of you, you are worth knowing, you bring something good to my life.

From Alaska we moved south to Minneapolis — not a direction usually associated with that city. I was told it’d be hard to “break in.” What I observed is a rooted people aren’t unkind. The problem is room on the plate. Having family and friends from years and years of history in the same place doesn’t leave much space for someone new. Maybe, too, there is not the awareness of what being a “stranger” feels like.

Part of the Christmas story we don’t often hear is this passage — “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.” Jesus was on a first name basis with rejection right from the start.

Perhaps this is why it blesses Him when I welcome a stranger.