Making Room

 

Revelation 3:20  Here I am!  I stand at the door and knock.  

 

At this time, on the heels of Thanksgiving, come all the pressure to do holiday shopping.  In fact before Thanksgiving dinner was served there were people literally camping out in front of the big box retail stores.  There they are waiting for admission to find the prized gift for themselves or for someone special. Add to this all the news paper circulars and mailers telling us of further bargains and Christmas happenings.  The Holiday rush has now taken hold of the public mind, let the maddening frenzy begin (Yippee, Yippee, Yeah!).

 

But the question may well be raised whether in the holiday whirlwind of shopping, bargain hunting, present giving, and planned events…whether we have missed the central historical fact of the Advent of Jesus Christ.  It was Jesus Christ who came into this world to redeem lost people, a people who desperately need the love and forgiveness of God.

 

We have all heard at one time or another about the Innkeeper in Bethlehem who “had not room for the Christ in the Inn”  on that faraway December night.  But instead of critiquing or faulting the Innkeeper, who in ignorance turned away the road weary holy family, let us turn our thoughts to our own time.  

 

Some of the saddest words on earth are: “We don’t have room for you.”  Jesus knew the sound of those words,  he was still in Mary’s womb when the innkeeper said, “We don’t have room for you.”…And when he hung of the cross, wasn’t the message of utter rejection?  “We don’t have room for you in this world.”  Even today Jesus is given the same treatment.  He goes from heart to heart, asking that he might enter…every so often, now and again, he is welcomed.  Someone throws open the door of his or her heart and invites him to stay. And to that person Jesus gives this great promise…”In my father’s house are many rooms.”…What a delightful promise he makes.  We make room for him in our hearts, and he makes room for us in his house.  What a glorious exchange. May we celebrate with all the festivity befitting of such astounding news.

 

But let us consider also with great compassion the multitudes who in this holy season still say “No Room” to the Christ who stands at the door of their hearts asking for entrance.  Let us look within our own hearts…perhaps too often we also put a “No Room” sign over our hearts as Christ gently seeks entrance.  

                                   

Christmas In the Heart

It is Christmas in the mansion, Yule-log fires and silken frocks;

It is Christmas in the cottage, Mother’s filling little socks.

It is Christmas on the highway, In the thronging, busy mart;

But the dearest truest Christmas, is the Christmas of the heart.