Our dear Lydia Elizabeth,
This morning I planned to teach our church’s Hospitality Team about the way God welcomes strangers into His home. It’s important for a church to reflect the character of God in the way they greet strangers, so I knew we needed a glimpse of God’s wise and glorious hospitality before we rebuilt the team.
But instead of teaching about hospitality I was at a hospital, doing a different sort of welcome.
You came last night, through the faith of your mother and the grace of our God. You were easy to welcome, because you were already our own. Your big brother and big sister even came to see you this morning, to hold you for the first time and greet you with a picture Sarah had drawn for you. We have all been waiting a long time to meet you: our Baby Sister.
But God is different. He is as faithful as an oath to His own, yes, but He welcomes even strangers into His home.
That’s why I wanted to be there when the team learned about a woman named Lydia, whose short story teaches us this same thing. She was a stranger to God, born far from the land where God once rested his Name, but she sought to worship Him anyway. Because of the way our sin alienates us from God, it keeps surprising me that He would honor the worship of a stranger.
But Paul and his companions, all strangers to her, were traveling through Phrygia and Galatia to preach very Good News- through Jesus, God was bringing back those who were far away, to be near Him again. There were other places they were considering taking this message, but God directed them toward Macedonia. Why would he tell them to go one place over another? I don’t know why- that’s what He does. I’m just glad He did.
When they arrived, many heard them preach. But one is mentioned above the others: Lydia. She has, up to this point, never been mentioned in the Scriptures, nor has anyone she knows been mentioned, nor has the place she is from or the place she is named after been mentioned. She is a complete stranger in this story.
But God brought His messengers to her, and then opened her heart to pay attention to this message. They spoke of Jesus, who had died and risen to bring us back to God and make the Jews and the Gentiles into one kingdom. She trusted this Jesus, and then followed Him in Baptism. Suddenly, a stranger was a part of God’s royal house. Her name’s meaning, “noble,” was becoming more realized.
Then a funny thing happened. These travelers who had shown her the way home had nowhere to stay themselves. Knowing what it meant to be welcomed as a stranger, Lydia knew what to do. She invited them to stay in her home. The one who had been welcomed into the greatest house in history turned around and welcomed strangers into her own house.
This is an even greater picture of God’s glory. Not only does He pursue strangers to bring them into His house, He makes them into the sort of people who mirror the same mystery. I wanted to see the faces of our Hospitality Team when that story came alive, to see if it clicked, but I got to see another face instead: my own little Lydia. Sometimes what you get is better than what you ask for.
Now that you’re here, we hope to mirror toward you the faithfulness God shows to His own. As your mother teaches you to nurse and I remember how to change a newborn sized diaper, we remember God’s heart-melting consistency. He’s even described as an oath, which we remember with your middle name. Elizabeth, very near to the heart of God’s house, knew the meaning of her name, “my God is an oath,” in the way she waited upon her Lord. Her faithful waiting was not in vain- it never is.
When you want to see a picture of that faithfulness, you can always look to the string of Elizabeths in your family, including your mother. You can hear their stories of the faithfulness God shows us and the faith that waits for it. Now that string has another thread: you.
Another example you can look to is your Great-Grandma Lynda. Having cared for three husbands on their death beds, one after another, she is one of the few people who have kept three marriage vows all the way to their end. She has been a member of the same small Methodist church for all of my life and more. Over and above that, the kindness she shows to our extended family has a consistency that is hard to rival. You were born on her 76th birthday, and will forever share that birthday and most of your first name with her. I pray you share much more in common with her as you grow.
Lydia’s story is one of unusual welcome; Elizabeth's and Lynda’s are both of unusual faithfulness. May you receive the same welcome into God’s house and the same faithfulness as you explore its rooms, and may you turn to show those same things to everyone God brings your way.
You are our Lydia Elizabeth Cook. Welcome.
Your loving parents,
David and Emily Cook
September 6, 2014
