Christmas 2023: There is No Room!
Every year around this time, during the Christmas season, I like to reread The Story with a fresh perspective. It’s amazing how something new always jumps out at me. This year was no different.
A few weeks ago, at church, our pastor was speaking on the Christmas story, and something really stood out to me. Joseph and Mary were heading into Bethlehem, and Mary was about to give birth. They were desperate for a place to stay, but there was no room. The man at the door said, “Sorry, no room.” As Pastor Bob read that again, it hit me. This man was essentially saying that there was no room for God.
The concept of not having room for God is profound. Jesus, whose name is Emmanuel, which means “God with us,” was being rejected. This man unknowingly symbolized the rejection of God, the creator of everything. It made me realize how often we don’t make room for God in our lives. It’s incredible; it just was stirring me. Oh, my word, oh, my word, no room for God, think about that. He left and he knocked on another door, the same response. Another door, same response, until finally, they said, “There’s a place out there in the barn, we’ll put God out there.” It’s overwhelming when you stop to think about that, there’s no room for him here, we can put him out there.
For several weeks now, I’ve been pondering that and thinking about how that applies even to my own life. I am wondering how it applies to all of our lives. How often do we say, do I say, there’s no room right now? There’s no room, I’m too busy in my life. I don’t have room for God. I don’t have the energy. There’s no room for God. I don’t have any interest. My interest is in too many other things. I’m not interested in Jesus, in Emmanuel, in God. There’s no room for him in my life. Or how often do we say there’s no room for him in our marriage? There’s too much going on, too many other things we’re interested in, too many things we have to make happen, and we don’t have any room.
There’s another verse that also came to mind. The verse is found in the Gospel of Luke, that’s the book with the longest story of Joseph and Mary, the Christmas story. But there’s another book of the Bible, at the very end of the Bible, the Book of Revelation, where there’s a verse that says in Revelation 3:20, “Hey! Whoa!” Jesus is saying this. The translation we read uses the word ‘behold” but it means “Hey!!!” He is trying to get our attention. Jesus is like, he’s saying, “I’m here.” And perhaps he’s even shouting, “I’m standing at the door, I’m knocking.” This is the second most stunning thing! The first most stunning thing in the Luke story is Joseph saying, “We have this God here,” and the guy at the Inn says, “No room.” Now God himself is knocking on our door, your door, my door. And he’s saying, “I’m out here, I want in.” Think about that again, the God of the universe, the creator of all things is saying to us, “I want in.” But he’s a gentleman, he’s not forcing his way in, but he’s knocking and he wants in. And then it says he wants in, and for everybody that opens the door to God, to Jesus, he says, ‘I’m going to come in,’ and he says, ‘we’re going to have dinner together.” It gives the idea that we’re going to hang out around the table. We’re going to have a wonderful time, and a friendship and a relationship that gets established with us and God! He wants in – that’s the most amazing part!
This year, as we consider once again the Christmas story, every one of us has the choice to keep the door closed and say no room in my life. In my time, in my interest, in my energy, there’s no room. Or we can say, “Oh yes, please, I can’t believe it! I’m stunned that you’re even knocking on my door. I’m overwhelmed by the idea that you’re even knocking.”
The God of the universe is knocking at our door. He wants in. And I just want to say to you, during this Christmas season let’s make room for God, let’s make room for Jesus.
Merry Christmas,
Mark Oelze, Author/Creator of PLEDGEtalk