Summer Visitors and Unplanned Meetings: Trusting God With Who Comes Through the Gate

Every summer, homes across the Caribbean fill up. Relatives fly in from Birmingham, Brooklyn and Brampton. The spare room that has held boxes since Easter is cleared out. Somebody borrows extra chairs from the church hall. The grill comes out, the kitchen gets crowded, and for a few weeks the house runs on a different rhythm.

We plan much of it. We know who is arriving and when, who will sleep where, and roughly what it will cost to feed everyone. But the part of the season people remember most is often the part nobody planned: the cousin’s friend who came along and turned out to be a gift to the whole family, the old schoolmate met by chance at the market, the conversation on the verandah at midnight that changed somebody’s direction.

A God who arranges the meetings

Proverbs offers one of the best-loved promises in Scripture: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6, NKJV).

We tend to read that verse when making big decisions: which house to buy, whether to move abroad or come home. It applies there. But “all your ways” is wider. It includes the smaller paths as well, the ones that cross other people’s at a funeral, a wedding, a family reunion, a church anniversary. The God who directs our paths is also, it seems, rather good at making them intersect.

Scripture is full of meetings that look accidental and are not. Ruth happens to glean in the field of Boaz. Rebekah happens to be at the well when Abraham’s servant arrives. Philip happens to be on the desert road as the Ethiopian official passes in his chariot. In each story, the people involved simply did the next ordinary thing, and God did the arranging.

When our understanding says no

“Lean not on your own understanding” can be hard for a household that likes order. Our own understanding says the house is already full. It says we can’t afford another plate at the table, that we don’t know this person well enough to have them stay, that this summer was supposed to be about rest.

Some of those instincts are wise. Trusting God is not the same as abandoning good sense, and families are right to think about safety, budgets and the needs of their own children. But sometimes our understanding is simply fear of inconvenience dressed up as prudence. Trusting God with the guest list can mean holding it a little more loosely, and being willing to be surprised.

Hospitality as a way of trusting

The letter to the Hebrews urges believers not to forget to entertain strangers, “for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels” (Hebrews 13:2, NKJV). Most of the people who pass through our homes are not angels. They are ordinary people who eat too much and leave wet towels on the bed. But the verse makes a point: we do not always know, in the moment, what God is doing through a visit.

Imagine a woman back in Jamaica for a few weeks who, almost on a whim, invites a newer friend from a conference she attended months ago to spend a day with her family. They go to the market, eat too much, laugh with the cousins, and discover how much they share. Neither knew, when the day started, what the friendship would come to mean. That kind of story is repeated in countless homes every summer. It is how God often works: not by a voice from heaven, but by a seat at the table and a day set aside.

Acknowledging Him in all our ways

What might it look like to acknowledge God in the visiting season? Perhaps a short prayer each morning over the house and whoever will pass through it that day. Perhaps leaving a little margin in the plans and the budget for the unexpected guest. Perhaps paying attention to the quiet person at the end of the table rather than only the loud relatives. And perhaps, when the visitors have gone and the house is quiet again, taking time to thank God for the meetings He arranged, including the ones you nearly declined.

For reflection

• Think of a friendship or connection in your life that began by apparent chance. How do you see God’s hand in it now?
• Is there someone you have been hesitating to invite into your home? What is holding you back, wisdom or fear?

A short prayer

Lord, You direct our paths, including the ones that cross our gate. Help me to trust You with the people who come into my home this season, the planned and the unplanned. Give me wisdom, an open table and the eyes to see what You are doing. Amen.