Hi, friends, and thank you for joining us for today's Our Daily Bread.

Our reading is titled Real Hospitality, and it was written by Karen Huang.

Kumain Kanabaya, have you eaten?

This is what you'll always hear as a visitor in many homes in the Philippines where I'm from.

It's the Filipino way of expressing care and kindness for our guests. And regardless of your reply, your host will always prepare something for you to eat.

Filipinos believe that true kindness isn't just saying the standard greeting,

but also going beyond words to show real hospitality.

Genesis chapter 24 tells us that Rebecca too knew all about being kind. Her daily chores included drawing water from the well outside town and carrying the heavy jar of water home. When

Abraham's servant, who was very thirsty from his journey, asked for a little water from her jar. She didn't

hesitate to give him a drink. But then Rebecca did even more. When she saw that the visitor's

camels were thirsty, she quickly offered to go back to draw more water for them. She didn't hesitate to help, even if it meant

making an extra trip or more to the well and back with a heavy jar. Life is tough for many people,

and often a small gesture of practical kindness,

can encourage them and lift their spirits.

Being a channel of God's love doesn't always mean delivering a powerful sermon

or planting a church.

Sometimes it can simply be giving someone a drink of water.

Today's Our Daily Bread Devotional Scripture reading is from Genesis chapter 24

verses 12 through 20. Then he prayed, Lord, God of my master Abraham, make me successful today,

and show kindness to my master Abraham. See, I am standing beside this spring, and the daughters of the

townspeople are coming out to draw water. May it be that when I say to a young woman,

please let down your jar that I may have a drink, and she says, drink, and I'll water your camels too. Let her be the one you have chosen for your servant, Isaac.

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