Hospitality to ... the Divine?

Now that the holiday season is over and our homes (houses? yachts?) are empty of guests, it is slightly ironic that I'm thinking about hospitality. But thinking about hospitality I am.

We humans have likely been dependent upon one another's hospitality for thousands of generations. It is only recently in human history that we have been settled people, let alone a blink of the eye that we have modern things like dependable cars and modern hotel chains. Prior to that, hospitality was the name of the game. And one was never really sure how one was hosting (see Genesis 18 - visitation to Abraham and Sarah, Luke 24 - Walk to Emmaus). One might encounter the Divine in the disguise of the guest.*

With that in mind, I give you this poem by Rumi.

Blessed Be,

Joel

Rumi’s Poem:

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

* In talking with an English Lit. friend of mine, he pointed out that Zues often went hidden as a traveler to test one's hospitality, too. In addition, there is a scene from one of the Homorisque stories about a group of people who show up, and there is not really any room for them. The character goes to the King wondering what to do, "Shall I send them on?" he asks. The King is outraged: "Find a place for them! Don't you remember how we, too, traveled by boat for ten years dependent all the while on the hospitality of others?!"