We all have important stories we love to tell about our lives and there are certain details we would never leave out—the power of such stories is in the details.
For example, Marise and I once were foster parents of two little girls who were about the same age as our two sons. It was the 4th of July weekend and we got word that one of Marise’s uncles in Canada had passed away.
So we packed up the Ford Station Wagon with all four kids and headed to Canada. Have you ever taken an unexpected trip on a holiday weekend? This trip began on the 4th of July!
Well, we drove all the way from central North Carolina to Pennsylvania in the Pocono Mountains before we saw a “Vacancy” sign on a hotel. It was about 1 am in the morning. I pulled in and made my way to the registration desk, which by the way, was located in the bar. I told the man behind the bar that I wanted a room and he replied: “For how many?”
When I told him it was for my wife and me and four children he replied with a smirk on his face: “Sorry, the only thing left is the honeymoon suite and I can’t rent that to you.” Was he being truthful are just sarcastic. Regardless we plowed on towards Canada in desperate need of some rest.
Well, Joseph and Mary had to make an unexpected trip south from Nazareth to Bethlehem in order to register in a government census. Obviously, they didn’t have online services back then so they had to appear in person.
Well, wouldn’t you know it: The unexpected always seems to happen when you are traveling. Mary was going into labor so Joseph needed a room at the inn right now! But there was no room—or at least this is what they were told:
“No room for you!”
What happens next in this story we are all quite familiar with: Jesus is born, placed in a manger, is visited by shepherds and wise men under the illumination of a guiding star. God becomes human in Jesus and makes his entrance into our world in order to bring salvation, peace, and joy into our lives.
What a nice compact and neat story. Well, the Bible has a different version.
But let’s not forget that good stories, even our Christmas story, have details we cannot leave out or the story loses its power. It’s like the small detail I emphasized in my opening story of traveling on the 4th of July weekend and being refused a room.
So Jesus was born nonetheless and was placed in a “manger.” Now a manger is a feeding trough out of which animals ate. You can bet that this manger was not a comfortable baby crib with a mobile hanging overhead with dangling little birds to occupy the newborn child.
Oh, such humble beginnings into which God’s only Son was born—into which God entered into our life experience.
But there is one little detail in this story that is crying out for our attention. It is the one detail that gives this story power even now, even two-thousand years later.
“There was no room at the Inn!”
Have you ever wondered if the Innkeeper was being truthful with Mary and Joseph? I’ve often wondered if the man in the hotel whose name I cannot remember was being truthful with me when we were unceremoniously turned away on that 4th of July night!
Maybe there was room for Joseph and Mary but when the Innkeeper saw this wayward couple he didn’t like what he saw and reckoned it would be best to send them on their way.
He didn’t like what he saw!
If this were the case, then the nameless Innkeeper of the nameless Inn (was it the Holiday Inn of Bethlehem or the Comfort Suites of Judea?) just unknowingly turned away God in the flesh!
Perhaps the Innkeeper really had no way of knowing who he was turning away and this is probably closer to the truth than we think.
But when God in Christ comes knocking at the door of our Inn (heart) are we going to turn him away because we may not like what we see? When he comes knocking asking for our hearts are we going to be willing to invite him in so he may abide with us? Are we going to look past what we see and get over our apprehension, even our fear, and say: “Yes Lord, come on in!”
In this little detail, we discover the real power of the Christmas story.
God wants a room in your Inn tonight—in your heart that is. He wants to reside within you at the very core of your being in order to become the Ground of your being.
Will you let him in? Will you give him residence in your heat?
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