This third Camino Walk, Lord, centers on the themes of Hospitality & Gratitude. I first listened to the Camino podcast for Week 3 while walking near my home in France in late July of this year. Here were my thoughts:

One of the Bible passages that was from John 12:1-8 where Mary shows extravagant hospitality, gratitude, and generosity.

“1 Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. 3 Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, and expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 5 “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” 6 He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it. 7 “Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. 8 You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”

I was asked to reflect on the following questions.

What is one experience you’ve had where someone has shown you profound hospitality and for which you’re still grateful? How did that feel? Was it a little uncomfortable?

How could you create a space of welcome for others? Is there an act of hospitality for a specific person that you can put into action in the next few days? In this broken and inhospitable world, what is one way God is inviting you to practice the kind of radical, unconventional hospitality of Mary and Jesus?

As I reflected on ways I could give generous hospitality to others in the next days, what I thought about was how in the past month we have offered generous hospitality to a dozen different people who have come to our house for a meal or a night and how we have given them space to tell their stories. We have listened with love, and we have prayed with them. This is the lesson of the Camino, and this is what You have called us to do for our whole lives

And as I paused, what I heard from You is “Well done. You are doing a very good job of offering hospitality and experiencing gratitude. Well done, daughter.”

I thought about how some of us sensitive souls who tend to be too hard on ourselves and to easily fall into self-incrimination, need to hear Your gentle loving voice saying, “Well done.”

Thank you for this reminder, Lord.

As Paul and I returned last night from a 4-day road trip down through the Camino territory that I had walked two years earlier and also down into Provence, where another part of my book The Promised Land takes place, we were tired. I’d made over 60 short videos to share with my readers once the book is released in November, and taken hundreds of photos too, again with the intention of sharing them with readers. I was thankful and delighted to do this, but it took a lot of time and energy, and I knew it would take a colossal amount of work to organize them. Was all that effort worth it?

With fatigue and questions running through my head, I knew my soul needed to take the Camino walk this morning instead of welcoming yet another guest. Thank You for the reassurance that today, this is what we are to be doing. Paying attention to You in the present, taking a walk, enjoying the beauty of Your creation, showing gratitude for Your abundant generosity, and passing that gratitude and joy on to others.

But it’s okay if I do not pass this on to everyone every time there is a possibility. This too I need to hear.

Life is a journey, life is ministry, life is loving others as You would love them and loving my neighbor as myself. And sometimes we need to slow down again and love ourselves so that we can continue loving others. And to hear You say, “This is good; this is good.”

Thank You, Lord, for teaching me to give myself permission to slow down.

I also reflected on how my ability to be generous with all different things: my time, my writing, my material possessions, my finances, my life, my friendships, my pastoral care—all of these ways that I have learnt to be generous, were modeled in some ways by my parents. My mom who was generous with her time in the inner city, and by Dad who loved to give extravagant gifts and take us to fancy places and restaurants. Their generosity paying for private education gave me a freedom to do something different. I’m not saying they were thrilled with me doing something different, but they let me go, and I’m thankful for their act trust and for their generosity.

Now today as I am heading home from my Camino walk, my prayer, dear Lord, is that You let me settle into this gratitude on the Sabbath day and enjoy all Your good gifts: the wonderful gift of my husband, Paul, the good gift of our home and the freedom to worship You, the good gift of French friends and our little church, the gift of technology that allows us to worship online, the good gift of sitting in the lounge chairs behind the house and listening to You, the good gift of wrapping all the good gifts we purchased on our excursion, gifts for us to be taken back to America and given away.

Reflect on these things and enjoy Your day.

Help me to keep trusting you, Lord, and to enjoy Your presence today in the midst of all the unknowns about our lives, unknowns about the future with Covid-19 as it continues to wreak havoc on our world. May I find your peace today knowing I am Yours and may that influence how I live today for You, for Paul, and for others. Amen

I encourage you, dear reader, to spend some time in the next days reflecting on these themes of hospitality, gratitude, and generosity, listening for the Lord’s gentle nudging, and perhaps His voice saying, “Well done.”

**You can see the videos and photos of the Camino and Provence mentioned above on my Facebook and Instagram author pages. I hope you’ll enjoy traveling with me and perhaps also with the characters in The Promised Land.

ELIZABETH MUSSER writes ‘entertainment with a soul’ from her writing chalet—tool shed—outside Lyon, France. Find more about Elizabeth’s novels at www.elizabethmusser.com and on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and her blog.