No Room
“….there was no room for them in the inn.” Luke 2:7
As this post is written we are 3 days from celebrating Christmas. Kids are getting excited. I have to admit that I still get excited as an adult. It is my favorite time of year. I love anticipating my kids excitement. I love thinking about what this time of year is set aside to celebrate. It is also a time for self-reflection. That’s what we want to look at today.
The segment of our focus verse above is very familiar to Christians. You can ask almost any child raised in church why was Jesus born in a manger, and they will tell you “There was no room for them in the inn”. It seems like a simple thought. We have all traveled before and found out that our preferred hotel is full and booked up. It’s disappointing and maybe even aggravating, but we moved on and booked a different location. Really no big deal. I cannot imagine what Mary and Joseph were thinking when they realized that the only place that they had to give birth to their child was in a cave or barn. That would be unheard of in today’s times.
But let’s look at that phrase “there was no room for them in the inn”. There’s more to it than simply no place for a child to be born. It is also symbolic for the fact that world does not want to make room for Jesus. We often don’t want to allow God a place in our hearts. We choose to push him out. We choose to also say “No room for you here.” Move along.
We are often quick to judge the innkeeper back in Jesus’ day. We make statements like, “How could you turn away a pregnant woman?” or “How could you not have room for Jesus?” We need to be careful in casting our stones. How many times each day do we push Jesus our of our life? Sure we welcome Him in on Sunday morning for an hour or maybe even two if we are willing to go to Sunday School.
There is a Christmas song by the group Casting Crowns and Matt Maher that hits this point very well. The name of the song is “Make Room”. I have included the Youtube link to both the official video for the song and also the lyric video for the song so you can follow the words of the song. I hope you enjoy and Merry Christmas.
Casting Crowns – Make Room (Official Music Video) ft. Matt Maher – YouTube
Make Room by Casting Crowns featuring Matt Maher (Lyric Video) | Christian Christmas Music – YouTube