Romans 12:13 … contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality

Once upon a time, in a kingdom not quite of this earth, there reigned a monarch whose throne was established very high, higher than all the other thrones and dominions that ever were.

In a time almost out of mind, in a land of special value to the king, there lived a wandering people. Unpretentious, rather timid in fact, and not at all inclined to bold deeds or regard for majesty.

However . . .

. . . the King on the very high throne loved this people very much, and He decided to take them for His own . . . not as an earthly king would take, but in watching over them, in giving them His protection and delivering them from a wicked and oppressive ruler.

Indeed, unlike the kings of men, who demand and usurp and take away from their subjects in great measure, this King wanted only to prosper this rag-tag bundle of shepherds and wanderers. He gave them first freedom from their mortal enemies, then He gave them a land in which to live and settle, and He gave them the unheard of benefit of . . . a day off! Never before had any King given LEISURE to His people, but to the people of this great King there was given one day every week in which they might cease from their labors and refrain from their workaday lives, that they might cast their thoughts upon the great love which He had for them and share that love with one another.

Sadly, this wandering, simple people were afraid to draw NEAR to the King, even though He had delivered them from their cruel masters that they might do so; they were rather afraid that they would melt if they came near, because the very presence of the King made the mountains smoke, and lightening came up out of the rocks rather than blitzing down into it, when the King was upon His throne.

But the King had one friend among the people, a spokesman, who ever drew near to the King’s Presence, who waited upon the King, and in all that nearness, in all his attendance upon the Kings’s majesty, it came to pass that one day the spokesman summoned all his courage to bring an impossible request before the King.       . . . an unthinkable, unimaginable . . . impossible request . . .

. . . and the King’s spokesman went up before the Presence of the King . . .