Now This is Hospitality!

I just read this story in the Denver Post on-line. These are some excerpts:

About 40 miles west of Clayton on New Mexico's lonely northeastern plains, a blizzard introduced 44 motorists stranded on U.S. 56 to the Glovers on Friday afternoon.
For two nights, the Glovers' small adobe ranch house - three bedrooms, one bathroom - sheltered the assorted 44 strangers, ages 4 to 70-something.
The snow began falling Thursday night, and it kept blowing through until late Saturday.
Christine and Randy Glover had no idea Friday morning that distressed travelers were nearby. They were talking to each other on handheld radios when they intercepted a radio conversation between two cars that had been traveling together before the storm forced them to stop.
"You could hear them, but you couldn't see them," said Christine, 34. "They were only about 150 yards from our house. They didn't even know there was a house behind the big trees. They couldn't see the barn. It was pretty much a whiteout."
The Glovers began talking by radio to 25-year-old Clayton Shumaker of Miami, Okla., who explained the situation. A minor accident had blocked the roadway. Traffic had crawled to a halt behind it. Then drifting snow trapped everyone.
"We continued to talk to them over the course of two or three hours," Christine said. "They thought the line of cars would get unstuck and continue on."
But it quickly became clear that there was nowhere for anyone to go. The Glovers tried to give the Shumakers directions to their home, but the only observable landmarks were white shapes near other white shapes.
"We finally figured out where they were. Clayton got his family settled in and asked if he could tell everybody else," Christine Glover said. "He got his goggles on and went back out to find more."
The Glover family didn't hesitate to welcome everyone, even as the house got more and more crowded. The closest neighbors were five miles away.
"It was just flat a need that needed to be met," said Randy Glover, 39, Christine's husband. "These people weren't here by choice."
Their new guests were parceled out among three beds, a recliner, the sofa and floors. Randy Glover slept on the kitchen linoleum.
"When we were all bedded down, it was sometimes hard to find a path to walk," Christine Glover said.
There was no whining, no tears, no grumbling. A little loud snoring, perhaps, but that was it.
Lance Glover, 9, and little sister Linzie, 3, thought the blizzard and their guests were "so much fun."
"We laughed, and we played dominos and cards," Christine Glover said. "The mood of the group was very loving. We told stories. We got to know each other. We met some lifelong friends."
When the roads became passable Sunday, many guests were eager to be on their way, but some lingered until Monday.
"We kind of missed them all when they left," Christine Glover said. "I'm having kind of an empty-nest thing. I've been waiting my whole life to get a chance to help people like that."

How great that they didn't worry about how it would all work out, or if the house was clean enough, or if the house was too small with just one bathroom! Instead, they opened their home and everyone was blessed for it! Good lesson for all of us to reach out to those around us. You might not be trapped in a blizzard of snow, but maybe your blinded by other things around you that keep you from serving others, maybe family, even strangers.

Lord, open the eyes of our hearts and help us to open our homes as a refuge to those around us.