In 2011, marine biologists around the globe were fixated on a pod of sperm whales in the North Atlantic Ocean; they had adopted a bottlenose dolphin calf. Jens Krause, a German behavioral ecologist, told one news source that sperm whales have “never been known to mingle this closely with another species.” Apparently the young dolphin had a spinal defect and couldn’t swim fast enough to keep up with other dolphins. But surprisingly, the sperm whales gathered the struggling dolphin into their fold.

The sperm whales modeled in nature what the people of God are to do the world over—welcome with wide-open arms of love those who are outsiders, gathering them into our communities. The writer of Hebrews charges the church to “keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters” (Hebrews 13:1). Before we can give love, however, we must be immersed in communities where love is front and center, where it forms our identity. We must experience love as it’s freely poured into us.

Love must never stay confined within us, though. It should move outward. “Show hospitality to strangers,” the Scripture says (Hebrews 13:2). This instruction doesn’t carry a simple moral mandate. Rather, these words define the way love works. It welcomes, offers friendship and relationship, tends to others’ needs, and takes on others’ burdens. “Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies” (Hebrews 13:3). To feel another’s pain, we must allow them to come in close. We must welcome them into our inner circle.

Teresa of Avila encouraged this kind of biblical hospitality. “Spread love everywhere you go,” she said. “Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.”

NLT 365-day reading plan passage for today: 1 John 5:1-21