In the busy world we live in, and in the politically correct culture of the Western world, it’s very possible to be completely unaware of the ‘reason for the season’ and to miss out on the Advent message that the King is coming. In Luke’s gospel, the angels announce to the shepherds that there is good news on the way, and that it is good news for everyone. The baby born in Bethlehem is to be the savior, Jesus, Light of the World. Here is one reason why people miss that great news today. Be sure you don’t do the same!
Read Luke 2.1-7
All of us get stressed in the lead up to Christmas: buying gifts, going to holiday events, organizing the family, decorating the house, and a thousand and one other things on our to-do list.
In the biblical nativity story, the fact of an inn too full to accommodate Mary and Joseph occupies just a few words in Luke 2 verse 7. Perhaps you have been to a children’s nativity play where someone gets to play the role of the innkeeper and reports loudly that there is no room at the inn. We don’t actually hear about the innkeeper in scripture, but it’s safe to assume there was one, or a family, in charge of the inn.
It’s also right to assume that the innkeeper was preoccupied with an inn full of guests in Bethlehem for the census. While those guests were being serviced in the inn, alongside in the stable there proceeded to be an event so significant that it has touched millions of lives over the centuries and will do so into eternity.
And yet we hear no more about the keeper of the inn: too preoccupied, too busy to see the significance and the wonder of the birth of Jesus Christ. In fact, the vast majority of Bethlehem was too busy to see the significance of this birth.
Don’t get so busy and preoccupied this Christmas that you don’t stop to reflect on the real meaning of Christmas, and to give praise and thanksgiving to God for Jesus – Immanuel, God with us, God made flesh.
