Advent is the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas when we try to be intentional about turning our hearts toward the real reason for this season – the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus.
This year we kicked off Advent with a fundraiser for our local homeless ministries. The original screenplay titled “Making Room for Christmas” used dialog and music to tell the Christmas Story as well as the story of Room in the Inn. The musical was amazing, very entertaining and heartwarming. But the final scene has continued to replay in my mind for the last week. The line “the way we make room for Jesus is by making room for others” challenges us all to open our eyes and our hearts to the needs of others.
In most versions of the Christmas Story, we see an innkeeper who regretfully tells Joseph and a very pregnant Mary that he doesn’t have room for them in the inn, and then suggests that perhaps they could stay in the stable with the animals. The scripture does not mention an innkeeper, only that there was no room for them in the inn and that they found shelter with the animals. The absence of space for them probably had more to do with their perceived scandalous behavior and the associated shame it would bring on the house of anyone who sheltered them and less to do with lack of physical space. And so, the Savior of the World was born in a cave where animals usually slept and was placed in a manger, a feeding trough. Homeless from the beginning and at the end – laid in a borrowed tomb. He lived his life among the poor, often homeless himself, loaned a birthplace and a resting place. His example of emptying Himself and reaching down to us challenges us to empty ourselves and reach down to others. This Christmas, let us make room for Jesus by making room for others!
“Come thou long expected Jesus, born to set the captives free.” Come and free us from ourselves, from our circumstances, from our poverty, from our affluence, and in doing so, free us so that You may captivate our hearts!
Shirley Chupp
Lean into Jesus Ministries
#shirleychuppblogs