no room for them in the inn.
Could they really be so caught up in business that they couldn't even provide a decent place for their Redeemer to be born? Would no one give up his room for a woman in labor, let alone their Savior's mother?
This was the King they, the Jews, had been praying for and looking for all these hundreds of years. This was their own God who was their in the beginning, who delivered their ancestors out of slavery in Egypt. This was Emmanuel, God with us!
As appalling as it is to me that all the innkeepers could overlook this couple, it appears that our country is gradually overlooking this humble Savior in a manger.
My mom wrote in an email to her family,
"I finished up a little shopping at Costco this morning, made pies for tomorrow and dinner for tonight, and will soon leave for rehearsal before the two services tonight. Seeing all the hustle and bustle at the stores yesterday and today, I wondered if Jesus might come again on His birthday. Sadly, much of the world would be too busy to notice, just like they were when He came the first time. I want to be ready and watching."While I don't think that Jesus' next coming will be a quiet, humble one, it's something to think about. Our Christmas celebrations seem to be quiet different from the first Christmas...busy, expensive, self-centered, when all the while, we're celebrating the most humble act in history, a quiet birth of a Savior, with animals and shepherds as company.
Will we get lost in our bustle that we miss the arrival of our King? Is there room in our inns, in our busy lives, for Him?
"Oh little town of Bethlehem,
Looks like another silent night.
Above your deep and dreamless sleep
A giant star lights up the sky.
And while you're lying in the dark,
There shines an everlasting light.
For the King has left His throne
And is sleeping in a manger tonight.
Oh Bethlehem, what you have missed while you were sleeping
For God became a man And stepped into your world today
Oh Bethlehem, you will go down in history
As a city with no room for its King."
"Quite different from the first Christmas"...and yet so similar. You're right, Lauren, we've taken something that was ignored to begin with and continued to ignore it, even after the extraordinary gift was revealed.
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