What Makes A Welcoming?

Every Saturday morning, the elderly folks play pickle 6 houses down from Jack’s.

It didn’t take long for Jack to acknowledge how nice the elderly folks.

But after a year of walking by them, a question hit him. “Am I actually welcome to come and join their Saturday games? There are six courts, of course. They already use rotations.”

It never dawned on him until one year in that this group of 40 pickle-ballers might just be incredibly open to him joining their weekend ritual. In fact, little does he know, they even pray about neighborhood folks joining!

But…

Jack has no plan to join them. Something in his imagination already says, “I’m not allowed.”