Christmas is a wonderful season, full of delightful stories, and thoughts that inspire.
Most, if not all are derivative and don't start you pondering in a new way.
However, this past Sunday, while attending Blair and Julie's ward, their main speaker struck a chord with me, and gave me new thoughts to ponder. Probably old stuff to others but new to me.
He spoke of the phrase in the christmas story of "no room in the inn'; and how we normally consider that a bad thing. That people were insensitive to the mother of jesus and how lowly and miserable conditions were. We further probe the question of personal introspection - would we make room for the Christ child. That all still holds true and has a good feel to it.
This approach however takes the 180 look - the opposite point of view - that ' no room in the inn' was a good thing, for it meant
> a peaceful birth place, not a crowded to overflow capacity inn; full of noise, commotion, contention maybe
> a clean place, the inn would be too busy to be clean, while a manger could be cleaned up
> a private place, the inn would be shoulder to shoulder, the manger just rearrange the animals
> a visit able place- would the shepherds and the angels come visit and worship in a crowded inn. Or would the manger be more conducive for drop by visitors of humble sort.
> if the inn was simply the guest room in the relatives home, the above still would have held true
Most, if not all are derivative and don't start you pondering in a new way.
However, this past Sunday, while attending Blair and Julie's ward, their main speaker struck a chord with me, and gave me new thoughts to ponder. Probably old stuff to others but new to me.
He spoke of the phrase in the christmas story of "no room in the inn'; and how we normally consider that a bad thing. That people were insensitive to the mother of jesus and how lowly and miserable conditions were. We further probe the question of personal introspection - would we make room for the Christ child. That all still holds true and has a good feel to it.
This approach however takes the 180 look - the opposite point of view - that ' no room in the inn' was a good thing, for it meant
> a peaceful birth place, not a crowded to overflow capacity inn; full of noise, commotion, contention maybe
> a clean place, the inn would be too busy to be clean, while a manger could be cleaned up
> a private place, the inn would be shoulder to shoulder, the manger just rearrange the animals
> a visit able place- would the shepherds and the angels come visit and worship in a crowded inn. Or would the manger be more conducive for drop by visitors of humble sort.
> if the inn was simply the guest room in the relatives home, the above still would have held true
His birth most likely took place in the natural place for a peasant to be born—, the relatives had no room in the guest quarters, Bethlehem probably not even having something that qualified as an inn; back with the animals it was. That said, the context is probably different than tradition would have us think,but the question we should ask ourselves doesn't vary much - do we have room for Him? Will we accommodate Him in our lives?
