Unexpected hospitality in the rain

It's been months since I've been able to ride my bike to my favourite park south of here. After arriving back in Japan in early August we've had plenty of heat and rain and I've had plenty of work to fill my days. In the middle of it all, I was longing for a quieter day that coincided with good weather. Up until we got up yesterday morning, it looked like it was going to be that perfect combo! But somehow the weather didn't conform to those earlier forecasts! 

My only photo from the day, just after 
arrived home.

With stubborn optimism I rode off mid-morning into very light rain. From there it went downhill! Partway into the ride I pulled out my rain jacket. By the time got to the park about 30 minutes later, my glasses were wet, but my jeans weren't too damp.

Koganei Park is one of the largest parks in Tokyo. It's about 80 hectares (112 professional soccer fields or 80 400m running tracks; or to use a park in my hometown: more than three times the size of Queens Park in Toowoomba). It's a beautiful place, but there are only a couple of places that you can shelter if it's raining.

So, I headed for my favourite sheltered spot and discovered that a few others were sheltering there too. I wasn't surprised, but a little disappointed. I cruised past on my bike, but recognised a couple sitting in the shelter: two people from church. Initially I was going to find somewhere else to hang out and eat my packed lunch and read the book I'd brought, but something prompted me to change my mind and I circled back to say hi. They were surprised to see me, but welcomed me and we ended up spending nearly three hours together. We were all hoping that the rain would ease up while we talked, but it really didn't, it got worse, and chillier. So, in the end we departed, me, for my seven kilometre ride home and them, for a much shorter walk to their nearby house.

This time I donned my full rain gear, and covered my two bags with plastic. Nothing I could do about keeping my glasses clear, though, so I peered between raindrops on my specs and thankfully had a safe trip home. My rain gear did a pretty good job, though the cuffs on my jeans and flannie (US Eng: flannel shirt) both got fairly wet. It was a relief to get inside and dry off my face!

Hospitality

The sermon at our church on Sunday was on 1 Peter 4:7–11. Here's 8–10:

Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. (NIV)

It's a rich passage with many concepts, but a couple are hospitality and loving one another. At lunch after church one man asked "How does hospitality look if you're an introvert?"

It so happened that that was the same man I encountered in the park with his wife. Hospitality is much a broader concept than hosting someone at your home for a meal or a night. In fact we have a whole industry using this name, an industry that encompasses providing food and beverages, accommodation, tourism, travel, and entertainment. 

I would venture to say that Christian hospitality is welcoming others, it's having a heart that is genuinely open to others. A heart that creates space (physical and otherwise) for others. I would also say that sitting and chatting to another person is a type of hospitality. 

When I arrived this man and his wife did practical things like shuffled over to give me a dry place to sit and offered a cloth to wipe my glasses. They also shared some of the food that they'd brought (something I forgot to do, but it's very Japanese to do this when eating together like this). They didn't dash off, they welcomed me into their conversation and we spent a few hours getting to know one another better. This was blessed fellowship and one that we would have missed if not for the rain (we probably wouldn't have met at the shelter except that we sought respite from the rain and would have left earlier if it hadn't been raining).

I'm thankful. I was able to share this story last night at our church's prayer meeting and another lady said she was encouraged by it. It reminded her that God has the power to make "coincidences" like this happen and encouraged her to pray for someone she occasionally encounters.

What other things would fit under the umbrella of Christian hospitality that we don't typically first think of?