Entertaining Angels

Today I was at McDonald's buying breakfast for my dad. I was on my way to church and in a hurry so Melanie, my wife, sat in the car while I pulled up and ran inside because the drive-thru was way too crowded. The counter was empty and I went up and directly ordered his sausage mcmuffin and two coffees and handed the cashier a $10 bill. She needed to give me back$3.97 so she asked if I had 3 cents which would allow her to give me $4.00 even. I didn't have any change with me so before I could tell her of my plan to run out to the car, a very nice middle-aged lady in line behind me said, "I'll run out to my car and get it." I immediately said, "well if you've got to go out to your car, I can do that," but she insisted once again, "no let me go get it." Quickly she returned and gave me two pennies and I looked at her kinda strangely and said, "you're short." I thought about it and said oh "I'm short." She opened up her hand and had more pennies so I handed the cashier 3 pennies and she handed me $4. The lady then stepped up to the register and began to order. When her order rang up I looked over and said, "if you're short, I have an extra dollar." We joked about it for a second and I thought to myself, "wow she was a nice lady." So nice that when I got in the car and was driving off, I began telling my wife the story about the lady and my wife began to describe the lady and said that she noticed her and had seen her walk into and out of the store and was struck by her nice countenance and her vibrant look. I then told my wife that I should've given her a business card because I would've loved to have talked to her again. Our two minute conversation was that invigorating. We connected.

Hebrews 13:2 says "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares."

I immediately thought about this verse after I left the restaurant and while I think that she could have been an angel, I wondered more deeply if we have missed out on angels in our past because of "race." See "race" gives us ideas of how or even whether or not we should interact with people of certain skin colors. "Race" determines who we build relationships with and with whom we make no attempt. It's time we realized that God doesn't subscribe to our "racial paradigm." God never made "white" people or "black" people or worthless people or ugly people or any other labels that we could use to determine our relationships or lack thereof. What he did do was create people for us to engage and build relationships with so that we could "connect."

Our country is at a crossroads because many of us think we "know" others, but we've never endeavored to "connect." Relationships aren't built because you work for the same company, because you work in the same office building or because you attend meetings together. No, relationships are only built when we connect with people through sharing deeply and intimately. Doing so we would soon find that knowing an individual personally is much different than characterizing him/her according to a particular group to which you have assigned them.

We seriously need to connect and as I read my facebook page and see the discussion that's taking place there, I'm not optimistic about the prospects of people making this happen. That's why it's great to know there is a God who can make connections between people who never could have done it on their own. Pray for our country and if you

have an opportunity today, don't just say "hi," connect. Who knows, you may be entertaining angels and not even know it.