My family is in a season of great anticipation as we look forward to the birth of a baby next year. For the boys the excitement turned into plans as they put forward their ideas of what we could do to prepare for the baby’s arrival. A cardboard box was found and a tea towel laid in it, for that could be the baby’s bed. The 4 year old then offered to share his room with the baby. My boys were making room in their hearts for the baby to come.
The echoes of Christmas are so clearly there. A baby to be born, room needed to be found. Yet in that Town of Bethlehem no room was to be found among lodges, among homes, among friends. No heart was willing to make room for the birth of a baby. Until one man offered space, no comfortable space, but space in a stable, amongst the animals. No cot, no cardboard box even, but a rough manger with straw was the only place where our precious Lord was welcomed to sleep.
Making room for a couple with a baby on the way in a crowded town was too hard. No one had room, no one had heart. It seems callous, unfeeling. Yet, here we are in the rush of Christmas – from parties, to holiday preparations, to preparing for family gatherings – busy, frantic. Do we have room for Jesus today? Do we have time in the countdown to Christmas to pause, to still our hearts, to make room, make space for Christ today?
Blue Skies & Lollipops 