A Familiar Stranger
I saw a stranger today.
I put food for him
in the eating-place
And drink
in the drinking-place
And music
in the listening-place.
In the Holy name
of the Trinity
He blessed myself
and my family.
And the lark said in her warble
Often, often, often
Goes Christ
in the stranger’s guise.
O, oft and oft and oft,
Goes Christ
in the stranger’s guise.
— The Celtic Rune of Hospitality
Send to Me, Lord, a Familiar Stranger
In today’s day, we’re apt to miss many an opportunity to deliver hospitality to the Christ woman and man in our midst, purely because the Day has cast a spirit of fear over us, in the legitimate name of safety and security, because of terrorism.
But the Day is eternal and we have the Presence of the Holy Spirit in us to discern the Familiar Stranger from the would-be extremist. The Familiar Stranger deserves our favour, for she or he will bless us by us being a blessing to them, and she or he will double that blessing.
For the law of reciprocity has its vision in burgeoning kindnesses bestowed without thought for return.
So ask the Lord, today…
Bless me a stranger, Lord.
Proffer before me, in my midst,
the presence of Your Presence,
in the frame of the Familiar Stranger.
Make them to come into my mind,
as Your sweet Presence blows them into my conscious reckoning,
as we both imagine, You and I, what might become.
Cast them bodily into the light of my day,
and make them to be Your messenger,
by some bizarre God-incidence.
Cause them to be blessed as I am blessed,
seeing in us, You as You in us unite,
as we both partake of a gift that can only come from You.
Make me to see as they leave my sight,
as they skip a merry tune,
the vision of that resonating truth in the lark’s warble.
And make me also to be blessed of You — Father, Son and Spirit — GOD, three-in-one — so I may do the same in the morrow, ever more. AMEN.
© 2016 Steve Wickham.