What is a Bethany House?

This last summer I had the pleasure of meeting Jill Briscoe after respecting her from afar. I attended an event for her magazine that she was at and decided to host one myself. As if it wasn’t cool enough to have her over, it landed on my birthday! As the night came to a close and people were leaving she leaned over and said “You have a Bethany house here you know,” Instantly I was confused… nothing new there! She could tell. “You know… a Bethany House and your name is also Bethany! It’s perfect!” I only knew that Bethany in the Bible was a town that meant “house of affliction” or “house of figs” (always felt that was kinda lame, like when you got those cards with your name and meaning on it. Mine would say “house of figs.” It was disappointing to say the least.) I never looked into why figs are so often mentioned in the Bible or what a house of them meant. I’ll save that for another day. What I will tell you is these plants don’t grow overnight, and it takes time – their maturity shows that the gardener has been continuously there, tending to their growth over the years. Sounds like a great analogy of our faith.

Besides the obvious answer of my own home… this goes a little deeper. My name was always special in that I was named after my Aunt Beth who was born severely deformed and passed away at 9 months. It was an honor to be named after her.

In the 2 years previous I have been challenged to have people into my home more often. Before then I would have been extremely stressed. It can be messy (after spending hours cleaning), it can be loud and I didn’t always get to enjoy my guests because I was so busy cleaning up the whole time. #MarthaofBethany If I didn’t clean up the whole time I was stuck with hours of clean up after everyone was gone. So we rarely had people over since it didn’t seem worth the crazy. I was so very wrong! I vowed to work on it and I am thankful I did! I can now say that it is a pleasure to have guests in my home. There have been several times where God did obvious work in my heart or one of my guests… I can’t think of a greater gift to a host!

But NOW…. after reading more into this place in the Bible I know that Bethany was a place of rest, a place of faith, and a place of healing. I had NO IDEA the significance of this place!
~ The last foot print Jesus made before ascending to heaven was in Bethany (Luke 24:50)
~He blessed the disciples there (Luke 25 :50)
~ Many times Bethany is referenced where Jesus would go to retreat and rest. (Matt 21:17, Mark 11:11)
~ Mary Anoints Jesus in Bethany at Simon’s home (John 12 1-8)
~His dear friends Lazarus, Martha and Mary lived there.
(John 11:1, 12:1)
~ Where he cursed the fig tree that did not produce fruit. (Matt 21:18-22)
~ It’s in walking distance of the Mount of Olives.
~ He brought Lazarus back from the dead (John 11)

Not only do I pray my home can be a place of rest, encouragement and growth in faith for others. I pray that I, myself can be a person of comfort, encouragement and growth for others. I believe in the God who does miracles and so I intend to share his hope with everyone I can, however I can. This is not to say BE LIKE ME!!! This is to say… BE LIKE JESUS!