A Midsummer's Reflection Series

Tuesday, June 2, 2026

Meditation 2: Genesis 29:13-14

By the Seine, Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), Paris, May-July 1887

Hospitality not only applies to how we treat strangers with no relationship to us, but it includes how we treat family members. In Genesis 29:13–14 we find a glimpse of hospitality shared by distant relatives. Jacob left his home in Canaan and returned to the land of Haran, where his grandfather Abraham had dwelt.

When Laban met his nephew Jacob, he treated him well, as the long-lost relative he was. Laban welcomed Jacob with the warmth of hospitality in an embrace. Genesis depicts Laban’s alacrity when we read that as soon as he heard about Jacob’s arrival, Laban “ran to meet him” (29:13).  

Laban then welcomed Jacob into his very home. This passage ends by noting that Jacob lived in Laban’s house for an entire month. If we’re familiar with this story, we know that it did not all proceed as positively and amicably as it began.

Jacob married Laban’s daughters and Laban and Jacob both played very serious tricks on each other and, eventually, when Jacob left, their parting was not on the most positive of terms. In the beginning, however, in the passage we have before us, we find a wonderful example of hospitality extended to family.  

Laban treated Jacob as if he were his very own son. He took him into his home, fed him, and cared for him, for an entire month. He let Jacob have some time to get on his feet. At the end of the month, Laban even provided Jacob with employment. There is much we can learn from this initial passage when Laban and Jacob first met. We, too, should extend hospitality to our relatives, who are sometimes more difficult to get along with than are strangers. 

Lord, help us learn to live love of neighbor with members of our own family. Help us to be hospitable not only to the strangers we encounter, but also to those who share our “bone and flesh” (Gen. 29:14).

Dr. Jeffrey Morrow, Ph.D. is a professor of theology at Franciscan University of Steubenville and the Director of the St. Paul Studies Center at the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology. He spent 15 years as a professor of theology at Seton Hall University’s Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology. In his final year in that role, Dr. Morrow worked on the Preaching as Hospitality Formation Program, writing these reflections on Scripture through a lens of hospitality. 

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