Thanksgiving is over and I am preparing for Christmas. I’m preparing decorations, menus, activities, and gift giving. These are not on my usual schedule throughout the year. So how am I doing these extra things? I’m making room for them.
The most wonderful time of the year can often become the most stressful time of the year. Yet I wonder if all the gift giving and pushing ourselves to exhaustion is how God would want us to celebrate the birth of His Son? In the midst of the Christmas craziness, we can often forget the very reason we’re buying gifts and celebrating with family.
The year that Jesus was born was a crazy busy time in Bethlehem. The people were preparing for the census. Cooking extra food, renting out rooms, caring for animals and doing more things than they would have usually done.
“And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.“ (Luke 2:7)
No room for Jesus sets the tone for Jesus’ life on this earth and it’s still true today. “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.“ (I John 1:10)
Preparing Him room is giving God the the opportunity to do the decorating this Christmas. If you let Him, He will decorate your life with joy, peace, and love. It might be it the style of something unexpected, unplanned, or right in front of you nose. You have to look for it.
Let’s not get so caught up in the materialism and commercialization of Christmas that it crowds our heart. Let’s not be like that inn in the Bible, known as the place where there was no room for Jesus.
It’s past time to make room for Jesus. In fact, this is a good time for you and me to take stock of what truly matters most in our lives. Let every heart prepare Him room.
Tune My Heart 