Friday, January 13

No Room

Read Luke 2:1-7


Is it too late to be writing about Christmas? Around here, we’re still working through the candy surplus and maybe this weekend we’ll get to taking down the decorations. Maybe. And since I am currently sharing my work space with a Nativity scene, I vote NO. It is not too late to write about Christmas.


You may see this post again in December though. Just sayin’.


There’s this one little verse in the Christmas story that bugs me.


And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.


No room. Seriously? No room? In the entire city not a single place could accommodate an extremely pregnant teenager? How cold hearted do you have to be to turn away a girl in that condition?


It’s pretty easy to be unsympathetic to the villainous innkeepers, isn’t it?


Let’s think about this form their perspective for a moment.


Bethlehem was a small village. There was likely only one inn for the whole city. It’s also likely there would have normally been only one or two guests at any given time. It was hardly a tourist attraction.


Mary and Joseph weren’t the only ones caught off guard by the spontaneous trip. The innkeepers had precious little time to prepare for sudden influx of guests, all desperate for a place to stay. Odds are by the time the slower moving travelers arrived, the place was filled to capacity and then some.


When there’s no room, there’s no room.


Now let’s bring it back to the present.


Life is hectic and filled with the unexpected. At least mine is. Maybe you are more organized than me. Maybe not. It’s also full. Full of people making demands of my time and attention—reasonable or not, the demands are there. Full of good things and projects and goals and obligations. Full of things I can’t or won’t say “no” to.


We all hit capacity at some point.


And when the One who can really do something about it comes looking for a place, there’s no room.


When there’s no room, there’s no room.


The following video was for our church for the Christmas service. The song is by Todd Agnew, and the lyrics appear in the video. I hope it offers you the same perspective it brought me.


There are a hundred people calling out my name today.
I need to MAKE room for the One who can save me.

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