It’s Christmas Eve. I don’t know what your plans are, but my mind goes back to the first Christmas Eve.
There are many different “characters” in the Christmas story, but none so elusive as the inn keeper. All we really know about him is that the Messiah, Jesus, the savior of the world, was born in a barn because there was no room in the inn for them.
One thing we do know is this: The innkeeper didn’t realize it at the moment, but Christmas was literally outside his back door.
His hotel business was probably busier than it had ever been. Ever since Caesar had issued the decree about everyone going back to the home town of their ancestors for a census, his place had been packed. So, when the young man arrived with his pregnant fiancé, needing a room, there was simply no room.
For the inn keeper, this pregnant couple was more of an inconvenience than an opportunity. He was exhausted, but my guess is, he tried to find a room for Joseph and Mary.
Maybe he asked different guests if they would give up their rooms for this young couple about to give birth, and they all said no. We don’t know. And, while he couldn’t put them up inside the inn, he at least provided a place of shelter for Joseph and Mary.
So the inn keeper wasn’t a bad guy. But even though he did the best he could do, he still missed Christmas. He was busy caring for his guests and his inn and whatever other things an innkeeper takes care of.
There was mud on the tile floor, carpets to sweep, rich customers upstairs who were demanding more blankets and another wine skin. He wasn’t an evil man. He wasn’t unloving or unsympathetic. He wasn’t angry or belligerent. He wasn’t even indifferent.
He was just busy. And while he didn’t kick Joseph and Mary and Jesus to the curb, he just couldn’t take the time to bother with a poor family who arrived in Bethlehem so late. He wasn’t evil. He was just too busy.
And some of us are just like that inn keeper. Our lives are so busy and we have the idea that, maybe, someday we’ll take time for Jesus. We’ll go to church once in awhile and maybe even throw a few dollars in the offering plate. We’re not bad people, we’re just too busy for Jesus.
So let me invite you to press the pause button life. Not the stop button, just the pause button. Pause long enough to consider Jesus. Pause long enough to consider who He is and what He did for each of us. Pause long enough to not miss Christmas.
A favorite Christmas story about the inn keeper involves a seventh-grade boy named William Spurling. He was big for his age, and a little slow mentally. But he was a good boy and all the kids liked him.
When it came time for the Christmas program to be presented, William Spurling was given the task of being the rough, mean inn keeper. When Joseph and Mary came to the inn and knocked on the door, William Spurling opened it. And when they asked for a place to stay, he said harshly, “There is no place for you to stay. There is no room in the inn.”
Joseph said, “But my wife is tired and weary and she is expecting a baby. Isn’t there just a small room somewhere where we could rest?”
Once again, William Spurling said, with roughness in his voice, “You’ll have to find a place somewhere else. There is no room in the inn.”
Once more Joseph pleaded just for some place for them to stay the night. Then there was a long pause — William Spurling had forgotten his next line. Finally, he remembered his line and said, with softness in his voice, “No, be gone.”
Mary and Joseph sadly turned to leave. But as they did, suddenly William Spurling regained his voice and said, “Wait a minute! You can stay in my room, and I’ll sleep in the barn.”
William Spurling, the seventh grade inn keeper, decided he was going to invite Jesus into his Christmas. My prayer, is that each of us will do the same — that we will press pause on our busy lives and consider our own need for a savior this Christmas.
May you have a merry Christmas, and the most wonderful new year.