Not Welcome

A young nobleman had been absent for such a long time from his extensive estate and numerous tenants that he was a stranger to them. Having returned home, he was out hunting and wandered from his party. Lost and thoroughly drenched by the rain, he sought shelter and relief in the cottages of some of his tenants, but they did not recognize him as the lord of the manor and shut their doors in his face. Knocking at the cottage of a poor widow, he heard the invitation, “Come in, thou blessed of the Lord.” She gave him a suit of dry, though coarse, clothing and spread before him the best food she could provide. He went away promising to return for his own clothes. The next day he appeared with his retinue and stopped before the poor widow’s door. She discovered in the young lord her unknown guest. He thanked her for her kindness shown to a stranger. She gave as a reason for her hospitality the fact that her own boy was away at sea and might be in need of shelter. When Christ came, He was surrounded by the world He had made. Yet Christ had nowhere to lay His head, for “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.”