For Some ... A Message of Sorrow

So ... we've made it past Thanksgiving and suffered through Black Friday and Cyber Monday. And through it all we've heard many messages: messages of great deals and best buys and holiday specials and "you absolutely need this in your life."

We've heard that we can't possibly make it another year (or maybe even another day) without a new car, or a new video game, or a new video game system, or the latest flat-screen (or is the latest one curved?) television, or a new coffee maker (by the cup or by the pot). Ads remind us that even tractors and riding lawn mowers look great with a Christmas ribbon attached, for Pete's sake!

On the more benevolent side of things we've been told that there are abandoned and hopeless animals who need our help this Christmas; that there are entire communities on the other side of the world that would benefit from a fresh water well this year; that with just a single dollar we might change a young person's life forever.

I was thinking recently about the messages recorded in the second chapter of the Gospel of Luke. According to the text, the heavenly choir delivered a message of peace while the shepherd's delivered a message of praise.

But there was another, more somber message delivered by the innkeeper in Bethlehem. There was no room at the inn for Mary, Joseph, and the soon to be delivered Christ child.

I believe that for the innkeeper, it might have been a message of sadness, and sorrow, and separation. How could he turn this young expectant mother out into the night? How could he not let the young couple in -- at least until the baby was safely delivered?

There was no room for Jesus. The same words were echoed on that day in Jerusalem when the people cried out that this same Jesus should be crucified. They had no room for the long-awaited Messiah to into their lives.

What they didn't realize - and what many fail to realize even today - is that without Jesus there is no hope; no life. According to scripture, to be without Jesus is to be without both.

With Christmas drawing near, I think it's a good time for each of us to examine our lives to see if there is any room for Jesus in our lives. If not, it's a very good time to remove those things that tend to take up too much room in our lives and those things that distract us from what is truly important. It's time to get rid of the sadness, the sorrow, and the separation

It's time to make room for the Savior.