Making Room

 

My sister’s family came to spend the night last Thursday night. Until 2am Thursday morning, however, there wasn’t room for them to stay.

 

One of the guest rooms is my office. It’s where I do my work and file my papers. It’s also the room leading to the attic and therefore becomes the catch-all of the upstairs.

 

Even though I had sorted papers many times this year, I hadn’t actually filed anything in a very long time. Instead, I had bags of papers that needed tending and various seasonal decorations that needed to be put into the attic.

 

And so I set out to work early last week. In between visiting with friends and family, running errands, wrapping gifts, and doing black-out poetry, I cleaned.

 

I cleaned the office. I cleaned the bathroom. I cleaned the guest room. I cleaned my room.

I gave the upstairs a much-needed make-over, and when I finished, the house was finally ready for guests.

 

As I think about the Christmas story, I think about the phrase, “because there was no place for them in the inn.”

 

I’ve always imagined that the inn was FULL—that ALL the inns were full. I’ve even imagined the inns as houses that people opened to guests.

 

But as I prepared for my family to come this Christmas, I began to wonder if maybe there WAS room for Mary and Joseph in the inn…except that the people didn’t want them.

 

Maybe their house wasn’t ready.

Maybe things were too dirty.

Better yet, maybe they didn’t want a pregnant woman giving birth in their home.

Or maybe they saw Mary and Joseph and passed judgment on an older man with a younger woman.

Or maybe they somehow knew Mary and Joseph weren’t yet married and didn’t want to condone their seemingly sinful behavior.

Or maybe Mary and Joseph were too ragged to meet inn-society standards.

 

We don’t know.

 

All we know is that Jesus was laid in a dirty, filthy manger because there was no place for his family in the inn.

 

Oh God. Help us to drop the excuses and judgments and to make room for you in our inn. Help us to keep our houses clean so that when you visit, we are ready. Help us to not let you pass by. Amen.