Most homes have a good chair. It might be the one with the cushion still firm, or the one nearest the fan, or the one nobody sits in unless the pastor visits. And most homes have a back step, the place where a man who comes to read the meter or cut the hedge is handed a glass of water without being asked inside.
There is nothing wrong with a good chair. The trouble begins when we decide, in the space of a glance, who deserves it.
God sees more than we think
People sometimes say, meaning well, that God does not see colour. It is kindly meant, but it is not quite right. The God who made the Blue Mountains and the red dirt of St Ann did not make one shade of person and then look away from the rest. He sees our complexion, our accent, the district we grew up in and the car we arrived in. He made the differences, and He does not pretend they are not there.
What He refuses to do is rank us by them. Peter learned this standing in the house of a Roman soldier, a place he had been raised to avoid: “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality” (Acts 10:34, NKJV). Paul puts it even more bluntly in Colossians 3:11. In the new life Christ gives, the old labels of nation, religion, culture and status stop deciding a person’s worth. Christ is all, and in all.
The scene James describes
James 2 paints a picture that could have happened last Sunday. Two visitors walk into the gathering. One wears a gold ring and fine clothes; the other is poor and his clothes are shabby. The first is shown to a good seat. The second is told to stand over there, or sit on the floor. James does not call this bad manners. He calls it judging with evil thoughts (James 2:1–4).
We rarely do it so openly. But anyone who has owned a house, let a room or sat on a residents’ committee knows how quietly the same instinct works.
- A landlord hears an accent on the phone and decides the flat has “just been taken”.
- A family on a new scheme talks about keeping out “that kind of people” without ever saying which kind they mean.
- A relative who married “down” is welcomed at the family land meeting but never really asked for an opinion.
- The helper who has cleaned a house for twelve years has never once eaten at its table.
None of these people would call themselves prejudiced. That is exactly why James’s picture is useful. It shows us the seat before we have to admit what we did with it.
Sweeping judgements rob us
Stereotypes feel like a shortcut. They save us the trouble of getting to know someone. A few bad experiences with tenants from one area, or one unpleasant encounter with a neighbour of a different background, and we settle the matter for a whole group of people.
But the shortcut costs us. The tenant we turned away might have paid on time for ten years and minded the place like her own. The neighbour we avoided might have been the one with a generator when the power went, or the one who knew how to clear the drain before the rains. When we sort people by the surface, we lose the people God actually placed on our road.
Care is still wise. A landlord should check references, and a family should be careful whom they trust with keys. Discernment is not the same as prejudice. The difference is whether we are looking at a person’s conduct or only at their colour, clothes and address.
What a welcoming home looks like
Seeing others the way God sees them is not a feeling we wait for. It usually starts with small, practical choices around the house.
- Offer the good chair to the person you would normally leave on the step, and notice how it feels.
- If you let property, use the same questions and the same standard for every applicant, and write them down so your first impression does not quietly rewrite them.
- Learn the names of the people who work at your house: the gardener, the man who delivers the gas, the woman who helps with Mama.
- At family gatherings, ask the in-law or the quieter cousin what they think, and then listen.
- Watch what your children hear you say about other districts, other islands and other kinds of families. They are learning where the good chair goes.
A home is one of the clearest places the gospel becomes visible. Anyone can say all are welcome. A table where the hedge-cutter and the deacon both have a plate says it better.
One family, many shades
The Caribbean is already a picture of Colossians 3:11 in some ways. Our families carry African, European, Indian, Chinese and Middle Eastern roots, sometimes in the same grandmother. We know better than most that a single family can hold many shades. The challenge is to let that truth reach past our own relatives to the stranger at the gate.
God sees every difference and still sets one table. When we do the same, our houses start to look a little more like His.
For reflection
- Who usually gets the good chair in your home, and who gets the back step?
- Is there a group of people you have written off because of a few experiences? What would it take to meet one of them as a person?
A prayer
Father, You see every face that comes to my gate, and You love each one. Forgive me for the quick judgements I make about colour, class and appearance. Give me eyes that notice people the way You do, and a home that welcomes them the way You would. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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