For many, Christmas comes but once a year. It's a morning, an afternoon, or an evening...one day or a few. And yet remembering the birth of Jesus should never be so confined, so restricted.

 

We are drawn not only to walk with Him, but as much as humanly possible, to understand Him. And the accounts surrounding His birth have so much to teach us...every single day.

 

The Laws of Encouragement include: Never assume. Assumptions lead to destruction. Everyone has a story which...you...don't...know. Consider that of the innkeeper.

 

Take care & be God's,

 

Chuck

 

 

The Innkeeper...by Drew Kelly

 

It's funny how despite the fact that no such character is mentioned in Luke's account of the birth of Jesus, we have created a whole story of the innkeeper.

 

It's also a bit sad. Over the years, the guy (or gal) has gotten a bad reputation as someone who peers out the door, sees Joseph and a quite pregnant Mary standing there, growls "No Room", and slams the door in the young couple's faces, leaving them to bed down with the livestock.

 

My picture, however, has mellowed. I see someone who finds himself at the confluence of the Super Bowl, Final Four, and World Series. He's just overwhelmed. There's no room, the pantry is getting bare and, "Oy Vey, we have these kids show up and she's about to have a baby!"

 

Maybe, as my pastor Dock Hollingsworth said one Sunday, the poor guy actually did the couple a favor by letting them bed down in the back, away from the crowd. After all, who wants to have a baby in the middle of an inn full of people? The stable, or cave, or whatever it was, gave them privacy for a very personal time.

 

It also meant that the shepherds had a destination where they could marvel at this new baby without distraction. They would never have been allowed in the inn. Not that the innkeeper was thinking of them at the time. It's another one of those "funny how God works" kind of things.

 

But back to that innkeeper.

 

His story is something I struggle with. After all, we often take bits and pieces of information and impressions that we have of others and build our stories about them. Doesn't take much to make a person someone we think we really like...or someone we think we really dislike.

 

If only we could put our stories about folks to the side, discover their stories, and learn who they are, maybe we could begin to love them as we are told to do.

 

One of my lessons this Christmas is that this baby---who knows us better than we know ourselves and loves us anyway---encourages us to get past the stories we make up and love each other! And maybe, just maybe, that isn't just for this one day.