What is the greatest gift you've ever gotten?

Last weekend a dear old friend and his little daughter drove several hours to visit me. Many times over the course of the weekend, I felt such a joy simply to share the same room with them. To look across at the chair that I've never seen my friend sitting in and find him there. To have his daughter's laughter fill a room that had not yet known it.

Two old buddies are happy to get a visit.

A long time ago another friend of mine told me that the greatest gift you can give another person is a visit. Now I love words so my mind begins making connections...

1. Visit - vision:  These words are made out of each other. That's why we say, I'm going to go see so and so, because we are going to vision/visit them. A rich word like behold works well here. I'm going to deeply behold, look into, understand and celebrate another person as I perceive their true dignity and personhood in Christ.

2. Visitation: When Mary pregnant with Jesus visits Elizabeth pregnant with John the Baptist, they pay each other great honors. They make room for each other just as room has been made within them for the Messiah and his Herald. They are caught up in divine visitation, and what spills over is the beauty of human hospitality and joy.

3. Visit in prison: I've been told that one of the biblical understandings of visit has to do with attending to a prisoner. Now attending is a rich word. It's made out of words like tender, to tend, attention, tension, tenet, tendon, and so on. The imagery is one of reaching out to hold on to and care for something or someone. To touch them and their needs.

All of these have to do with the giving of oneself in deep, actual Presence physically, mentally, resourcefully, emotionally - all of which are of course spiritual. When we make the choice to visit another person we are showing great respect (a word which means to re-spect or again-spectate/repeatedly-look at). We are telling them, in essence, that we deeply enjoy and love to be near to all that they are.

Jesus has paid us the ultimate honor. He has visited us. He has come to look long and deeply at us. He has come to find a place of dwelling in the flesh which when he created it he created with the capacity to welcome Himself. He has come to reach out and care for us. He has died and risen so that we may mirror his visitation eternally in his Presence as his guests. And if visiting is done well, everyone finds themselves finally at home.