Weekend, December 21, 2019
No Time for Jesus?
Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. (Luke 2:4–5 nkjv)
World figures come and go. Dictators come and go. So do kings and queens, presidents, and prime ministers. But the Lord moves people the way He wants to move them. Proverbs 21:1 says, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes” (nkjv).
That first Christmas, the Lord had a plan to fulfill, so He directed Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem. He chose to do this through a ruling by Caesar Augustus, who wanted to tax everyone. Because Mary and Joseph both traced their ancestry to King David, they went to his boyhood town of Bethlehem.
Obviously, this is not what a woman wants to do when she’s nine months pregnant. It was a difficult and dangerous journey. When Mary and Joseph finally arrived in Bethlehem, they looked for a place to stay. But there was no room in the inn, which was indicative of the treatment Jesus received when He walked this earth.
The innkeeper is not portrayed in the Bible as wicked. I think he basically was preoccupied. Yet ultimately this was all part of God’s plan for our Savior to be born in the most humble of settings. Even so, the innkeeper missed out.
Talk about opportunity knocking, God Almighty was about to enter the human race, and the innkeeper didn’t have time. That’s how a lot of people are at Christmas. We’re so busy shopping for Christmas and talking about Christmas that we can’t even go to church or take a moment to pray.
We need to make room for Him. Each of us is an innkeeper, and our hearts are the inn. Each of us decides whether there’s room for Jesus. It is not only a matter of asking Him in, but it’s making time for Him every day.
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