Sunday, December 10, 2000

"He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives."

I am jumping ahead in our story a bit, but today I am thinking about the Inn and the Stable. Mary and Joseph arrive in Bethlehem for the census only to be greeted by labor pains and "No Vacancy" signs. They were asked to go out back and give birth in a stable because there was no room for them in the inn.

During the weeks and days which lead up to Christmas, our lives become a lot like that inn so hectic and overcrowded that there is no room left from anything more. We, like the innkeeper, are often too preoccupied with the business of being busy to notice what God is doing in our own backyard.

How ironic it is that there was no room for this child who would come and make room for all people.

I read a story by a devotional writer who tells of the Christmas when her son was four years old and her daughter two. She says, "the part they liked best about the decorations was the nativity scene. It was a porcelain one, but the children were allowed to touch it carefully, to rearrange it. They took their time, putting the cow and the donkey and the sheep just so, looking toward the child. But then her son remembered a small stuffed pig that 'ought to see the baby.' And her daughter brought in the Fisher Price farm animals. They stood a dalmatian next to the sheep, and the Lion King behind the donkey and cow. A dinosaur looked on from the rear. And the wise men were joined by Superman and Batman.

"They had it right of course. There was room to invite everyone to the manger everyone gathering around in peace to see the Child born in the Little Town of Bethlehem!"

Jesus made room for everyone and now, in this wondrous season of anticipation and hope, it is time, in the stables of our hearts, to make room for him. --AD

PRAYER:
          When the song of the angels is stilled,
          When the star in the sky is gone,
          When the kings and princes are home,
          When the shepherds are back with their flock,
          The work of Christmas begins:
                    To find the lost,
                    To heal the broken,
                    To feed the hungry,
                    To release the prisoner,
                    To rebuild the nations,
                    To bring peace among brothers and sisters,
                    To make music in the heart.
                              [From Howard Thurman's "The Work of Christmas,"
                               in The Mood of Christmas]

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