​‘No Room For Them in the Inn’: Making Room for Jesus

Christmas is such a marvelous season in which after preparing ourselves throughout the four weeks of Advent, we joyfully celebrate Our Lord Jesus Christ’s Nativity.   With beautifully decorated homes, Churches and businesses along with Christmas music, gifts, parties and feasts, the season of Christmas can become so ornate that it can be easy to overlook just how humble His birth really was.

The manner and place in which the Blessed Virgin Mary gave birth to Our Lord and Savior is quite the opposite of the elaborate festivities that take place around the globe to celebrate His birth.
While I do feel that it is justified to jubilantly celebrate His birthday as it is one of the greatest events to occur in history, one must not forget how God came to us. 

“and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” (Luke 2:7)

Let the sentence “there was no room for them in the inn” sink in for a moment.

On Christmas Day, I was reading all the Gospels for the various masses and when I finished reading that sentence sobs immediately lumped in my throat and tears welled up in my eyes.  Thankfully it was my son’s nap-time, so I was forced to quickly swallow my sobs and wipe my tears.

God loves us so much that He choose His Son to be born to us in the poorest and most simple of ways.  He came to us, a King in the exact opposite of how a King would be born, as perceived by secular world.

My sobs and tears came so quickly after reading that sentence because I remembered the times when I didn’t have room for Him.  I remembered how empty and meaningless my life was when I made no room for him.   To this day, there are still moments where I could do a better job of making even more room for Him.   Just as there was “no room” for Him then, too many still do not have room for Him now. 

Thanks to Saint Francis of Assisi, who created the first nativity scene in 1223, the Nativities are a simple, yet powerful reminder of Jesus Christ’s humble beginning.  For our family, the Nativities in our home are always put up first and taken down last.   

But, if you had never heard of Jesus Christ and did not know that He was the Son of God and you saw the Nativity Scene, would you imagine that God would be born and become flesh there?  In an area which was used to accommodate farm animals?

With the Nativity Scene, Saint Francis of Assisi wanted “to do something that will recall the memory of that Child who was born in Bethlehem, to see with bodily eyes the inconveniences of his infancy, how he lay in the manger, and how the ox and ass stood by.”

It reminds us that we need to always make room for Jesus Christ in the “inns” of our hearts, minds and souls. 

Wouldn’t You Have Opened the Door to the Blessed Mother Pregnant with Jesus and St. Joseph?

You still can.  The true celebration of the Nativity of Jesus comes when we actually follow Jesus’s ways in our actions and in our words.   

When we make time for daily prayer, weekly Mass (at least), and regular confession.   When we take the time to venture out into our community to see how we can utilize our time, treasures and talents to help those in need. 

​When we love one another, and treat everyone like they were the baby Jesus laying in swaddling clothes in the manger.
 
How will you make room for Jesus Christ?  Please share with us on Facebook!
 
As always, thank you for reading.  God bless you and may the Blessed Virgin Mary be with you always!  Merry Christmas!



Source:
“Understanding the Nativity Scene.” Archdiocese of St. Louis - Alive in Christ, archstl.org/stewardship/page/understanding-nativity-scene.