room

can't help but enter this Christmas season with thoughts about "room" on my mind.  room~ like having room...you know?  we all recall the first Christmas story, yet some years different aspects stand out to me in new and amazing ways (i'm thankful for that!)...yes, there was the wee baby King, Saviour of the fallen world, the promised Messiah, born among the most primitive and basic furnishings and lowliest surroundings~ placed in a manger, within a humble stable, cold and dark.  no fanfare, no satin sheets, no press release, no royal welcome.  his magnificent arrival, however, was not before his travel-weary parents had been told by the keepers of the inns of Bethlehem "sorry, we have no room".  it has me thinking~ what if they had known, what if the inn keepers had understood the magnitude of that refusal, "sorry, no vacancy"?  what if they'd grasped that the opportunity to host the greatest, most divine and life-altering event was there, standing right in front of them in the form of the virgin Mary, great with child?  goodness knows they'd probably have found a way to make it happen, and inconvenienced themselves even by offering their own personal place of rest to share in the arrival of baby Jesus.  somehow, someway, they'd surely have found room!  wouldn't they?  but they missed it.  they didn't know...

makes me wonder how many times i've missed the opportunity to make room for the presence of Jesus in my own life.  the busy pace, the schedules, the lists, the important, well-intentioned things we do that often crowd our life with good and purposeful things and people and plans~ and i wonder~ did i miss Him today?  did i fail to open my hands, my doors, my heart to the people, the causes, the needs that matter most to Jesus?  to His very children who long to be invited in to feel the welcoming arms of acceptance and care and love extended to them?  

Christmas has me thinking this year especially.  i want to live more open handed, arms extended, eyes lifted in a manner that says "God, what have you got for me today?"  where can i make room in my life for more of that perspective, because i'm certain that those places, those occasions, those opportunities bring me closest to the heart of Jesus.  without a doubt.  i suppose it's a daily life approach that displays a gratitude for the grace shown to us, and then offers out grace generously to the needs all around us.  all the time.   

that's really what Christmas is about~ re-gifting The Gift given to us!  making room even when it's inconvenient.  i want more of that.