There's Room for Me (Part I)
The Lord God appoints these two tender teenagers to bring his one and only Son safely into the world and he can't even give them the security of a room?
They left their home, the new cradle still swinging from the rafters. Night after night the aroma of fresh cut wood had filled the room as Joseph patiently fashioned the tiny cradle with the same chisel he usually put down at the end of the day. He was preparing a place for his son. Safe. Secure. A place provided with a father’s keen sense of protective care.
They left their home, a village where those family and friends close enough to understand their situation surrounded Joseph and Mary with warm and loving care. Mary appreciated the support that helped her care for herself and, in turn, care for the son she carried in her womb. Her health conscious routine of eating just right, sleeping enough, resting when needed, and most recently nesting in her home was a mother’s way of preparing a safe delivery and welcome environment for her child.
But they left their home. As a result of one, loud, obnoxious announcement from the Roman soldiers that everyone return to his hometown to register for a census, they left their home. And along with it, they left behind their place of safety and their routine of security. “Surely,” Joseph reassured Mary as he helped her onto the donkey, “the Lord God will provide a safe journey for us and the baby, and a safe place for us in Bethlehem. The Lord will provide, Mary. Don’t be afraid.”
But they both were still just a little afraid and, just as they had feared, the Lord didn’t provide! It started with the traffic jams when they and everyone else from Bethlehem converged on the city at once like Christmas travelers clogging Chicago’s tollways. It became more obvious when they stood desperately in line at the inn hoping to claim a place to stay but there was no room. “I knew we should have left sooner,” Joseph scolded himself. “I’m sorry we had to travel so slowly,” Mary apologized. “Why, Lord?” they both wondered. “What now?” they both worried. The Lord God appoints these two tender teenagers to bring his one and only Son safely into the world and he can’t even give them the security of a room? What the Lord God did provide was an innkeeper touched by Joseph’s cries for special help who let them stay with the animals.
So there was no room for them and yet there was room. Not the kind of room they had hoped for, but the kind of room that would help them – more than they understood.
PRAYER: Where are my hopes fulfilled, Lord Jesus? Let them not be fulfilled in the imperfect plans of my mind or the limited understanding of my wisdom or the meager passions of my heart. Let my hopes be fulfilled in you, on this Christmas and always! Let your Christmas message this year remind me that you are the fulfiller of all hope, and that you fulfill your pledges and promises beyond my understanding. Amen.