There are less than 10 days left until Christmas, so please make sure you don’t miss it this year!
I am convinced that most people “miss” Christmas every year. At Christmas, people are busy shopping, attending parties and school plays, decorating, and doing all the other things that compete for attention.
A couple of weeks ago, I was in the waiting room during Caroline’s surgery talking with my mother. She caught me off guard when she said that she dreads Christmas Day. What she was really saying was that she dreads the stress of Christmas Day when the whole family gets together.
As I began to write this article, I thought back to the Christmas traditions of my childhood. We had Christmas Eve dinner with my dad’s parents, followed by gift opening. It seemed as if Santa’s sleigh mysteriously missed the rest of our entire neighborhood and dropped everything off at our house. Christmas morning was a mad rush to say goodbye to my dad’s parents and hurry down the street to spend the rest of the day with my mom’s family. Thinking back over the years, I can’t tell you how many times I felt a sense of emptiness when Christmas Day came to an end.
The problem is that I was making the same kind of mistake that the innkeeper did that night in Bethlehem. Luke 2:7 sets the scene: “And [Mary] gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” Christmas was at the innkeeper’s doorstep; however, in the hustle and bustle of the census, the innkeeper was so preoccupied in the pursuit of his career that he missed Christmas. In fact, he apparently did not take time to call anyone to help the young mother about to give birth. There was no indication that the innkeeper was hostile or unsympathetic but rather he was just too busy.
Similar to the innkeeper, my life was too consumed with the clutter of activity around Christmas that I missed the Son of God. I was showing Jesus to the stable compartment in my life and not making room for Him in the inn of my heart.
Today the world is filled with people like the innkeeper. People are so consumed with the pursuit of their careers, material possessions, pleasures, and comforts that they are giving no time to the Christ of Christmas. Don’t be like the innkeeper who missed Christmas! Let the Christ of Christmas find vacancy in your heart and invite Him in as Savior and Lord.
“Each of us is an innkeeper who decides if there is room for Jesus!” Neal A. Maxwell
I pray that you are overwhelmed with great joy this Christmas. God provided us with the greatest gift of all that night in Bethlehem. Rejoice!
Blessings my friends,
Ryan Hutchins
RE HOPE Church - Raleigh
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