A Rabbit, a Frog, and a Lesson on Hospitality

A new genre has been added to my reading repertoire of late: children's books. There are few things that I love more than reading books. Add a cute little daughter saying "Let's read a different book now, daddy," and I melt. The dense theology texts go back in the backpack, and we grab another Theodore Geisel or Stan and Jan Berenstain special.

As a family, we spend far too much time at the Lake Orion library and bring home crates of books at a time. One of the books that is on our frequent check out list is Sandy Asher's Too Many Frogs. The book is fun, creative, aesthetically wonderful (illustrations by Keith Graves), and one of the most accessible lessons in the Christian tradition of hospitality that I've seen.

It begins with a simple declaration of Rabbit’s quiet, calm, uninterrupted life:

"Rabbit lived by himself in the hollow of an old tree.
He cooked for himself.
He tied up after himself.
And at the end of each and every day, he read himself a story.
It was a simple way of life - no fuss, no clutter. And Rabbit liked it."

Then, just as he's sliding back into his recliner to read a new story, Rabbit hears a "knock-knockety-knocking" at his door. With that knock, Rabbit's tidy, “no fuss, no clutter” world is intruded by Froggie. The rest of the story is a walk through Rabbit's struggle to learn to live with this new intrusion by the other, to find a new way of welcome and of grace, especially when it shatters his expectations and preferences of how his evenings might go. After much inner turmoil and outer struggle, Rabbit realizes that Froggie’s intrusion is an offer of grace, a chance for Rabbit to discover "a different way of life. And Rabbit liked it."

The story reminds me of the reality of hospitality as a Christian discipline. It is an offer of grace that is full of intrusion. It has little to do with the Southern Living or Martha Stewart kinds of plans and preparations. These guests are often not invited, stumbling into our no fuss, no clutter lives and wreaking havoc. It has to do with an openness of life, one that struggles to allow the grace of welcome to tip the scales, rather than mistrust and fear. It is about discovering that our thoughts and perspectives are provisional and that the other just might have something to offer. This kind of hospitality is never easy, but, if we take Scripture seriously, when we open our lives and welcome the intrusion of strangers and guests, we might come to discover that it's been God's hand "knock-knockety-knocking" at door.

I hope that N and I can show radical hospitality and truly welcome the gift of strangers, expecting to encounter the presence of God in them. Most importantly, I hope and I pray that N and I model for MJ the hospitality of God that is at the heart of this little book. (Hmm... reminds me of the importance of a story-formed morality, but that's gonna have to wait for another day.)