Make Room For Jesus

Christmas 2015

The sun begins to set on the dusty horizon. A man walks along the worn path leading his animal. The two clop along in unison with a steady gait. Upon the back of this animal sits a woman swollen with expectation of her first child. She rises and falls with each step the animal takes, absently rubbing her round abdomen. Soon, very soon by the contractions that ripple through her, she will give birth. The foretelling signs of her child’s arrival are compounding the sickness she feels riding along on this beast. The ever present sand flows through her hair and across her face, and the cool of night begins to wrap around her so that she shivers despite her cloak.

The man and woman approach a town. A village more like it. It is their destination. From his home in Nazareth, some seventy miles away, the man has come here with his pregnant wife by order of proclamation from the King. His feet hurt, his back aches, and he is weary from the experiences of the past nine months. He reaches the first buildings of the town and unwillingly fulfills prophesy for tonight his wife will give birth and the child will be born in Bethlehem.

A knock on a door, a face appears, and a head shakes “no”, there is no room. A second door, and a third, but although they are different doors, they offer the same answer. Finally, a sympathetic soul offers the use of his stable. The man leads his animal to join the others resting for the night. He helps his wife disembark her ride and tries to give her privacy in this makeshift delivery room. He reads her face and knows that the time of arrival is near. She cries and pants from effort. He holds her hand and offers words of encouragement. With a scream and a final push, the sound of a small cry is heard in the world that is different than any other child’s cry that has ever lived. The woman holds this small wriggling bundle and is amazed. If what the angel told her is true, then in her arms she holds the indwelling of God in human form.

Do not be quick to judge those shaking heads and denial of a room for the arriving baby. This child, this Christ, arrived in a world where he was neither wanted nor accepted, but today is no different. Today we plod through our busy daily life and when he knocks on the door of our heart, we are too quick to shake our heads “no” and offer him no room. Tonight as we celebrate the Advent, the Arrival of Jesus, we ask the question, do you have room for Him?