Loving Invitations (12/20/2025)

Yesterday, my husband was working in the basement. I heard his cell phone ring and him answer it.  A few minutes later he came upstairs beaming like a beacon. If I didn’t know better, I’d have thought he won the lottery. “Jacob called,” he told me, “he is putting in his kitchen backsplash, and he wondered if I was free to supervise.” Aren’t loving invitations powerful?

We have the opportunity daily to invite others to join us, to help us, to lead us.  We have the opportunity daily to tell others how much they matter to us by asking for their assistance or their expertise. We have the opportunity to acknowledge others as the gifts they are to us by seeking their companionship on the journey.

Some of the most joyful moments of my life have been because another invited me to do something, to share the journey, to bring my gifts and resources to a moment in time, to a challenging situation, or to another. These invitations are calls from the LORD through others. They are powerful because they remind us of the blessing we have received as well as the relationships we are to enrich through them.

Asking others for help is hard for some of us, but hopefully we can learn that asking for help is what the LORD invites us to do. One of my favorite passages from the gospel of John is chapter 13 and Jesus’ washing of the disciples’ feet. I have a special painting that hangs above my roll top desk that reminds me of Jesus’ lesson. He wanted to show the disciples that they, too, were called to serve others. The look on Peter’s face, his discomfort at being served, is obvious. And when I look at that painting I always remember both sides: we are called to be servants, but servants require others who allow the servants to serve, who invite the servants to serve.

I can’t wait for next week when I can get my grandson off to thank him for making his grandfather’s day and inviting his grandfather to “supervise.”

As we continue our advent journey, let us be present to one another, recognize what the other has to offer, and invite them to do so for the glory of God and for love of us. And if we are blessed to be invited to share our time, our talent, our treasure with another, let us see it as what it is, a loving invitation.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.