No Room In The Inn

No Room in the Inn

"She brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn." ~ Luke 2:7

In these days of modern technology, we never miss a thing with TiVo, voice mail, DVD recorders, and camera phones. But even though our toys keep us from missing a phone call, they can also cause us to miss the real reason for the holiday season.

You can watch Christmas disappear in front of your eyes, in a heap of shredded wrapping paper, and find yourself saying, "I was so busy shopping, so busy attending this, going to that, that I think I actually missed the point of Christmas."

It might be surprising to know that the majority of people missed the very first Christmas as well. People just carried on with business as usual, paying no attention to what was happening just a few feet away.

In Luke chapter 2, we are introduced to an innkeeper who had no time for Christmas. In this familiar story, Mary and Joseph came to the innkeeper for a room, but because his inn was full, he turned them away.

The only place he had for this young pregnant woman and her husband was a stable, a cold, dark, and damp stable—which was more than likely a cave. He was too preoccupied with other things to make the time for Christmas.

There are people like this in the world today. They don't necessarily oppose or hate God outright. They are simply preoccupied. God and spiritual things do not concern them. Their interests lie more in what can immediately satisfy their own physical needs. The innkeeper was too busy to make room in the inn for the soon coming Messiah.

Let me ask you this: have you made room for Jesus this Christmas? If not, there is still time to refocus and make room for Christ this Christmas, today!

I Triple Dog Dare You!

Yeah I love that line from the movie, "A Christmas Story." As a matter of fact, I can relate to a lot in the movie. Every time Ralphie gets in trouble and has to wait for his dad to come home, oh man, my heart beats faster in my chest.

I remember that twilight hour when the sun was setting and the brilliant royal colors were settling in the sky, it wasn't sunset for me. It was a clock, ticking down the minutes ever so loudly, that I could hear them and begin to count down the minutes til I heard my dad's car pull into the garage.

So glad I have grown and no longer live in that kind of fear and dread. However, yesterday was a day of reflection. Perhaps because I have my nephew once again for another week, and the disappointment that when I gave him homework to do over the weekend, he didn't due it, until last night, after a lengthy phone call to his dad.

I started to remember how it was growing up in a home where our parents worked all the time, it seemed and we were left to our own devices.

We got along for the most part, and had our really bad arguments and fights. If only mom and dad could see there stuff we used to do.

So here it comes in the form of my blog, kinda of spring cleaning of the mind. The things I did to my brother.

We grew up having dogs of all sorts, most of the names have lost escaped my over crowded memory, but I do remember we feed them virtually anything that was cheap and on sale at the grocery store.

This is before the days of stores like Petsmart and Petco, although, I still buy my pet food at Target cause it's cheaper there and I hate making extra trips.

So it was curiosity that got the best of me most days. There were these things called Gaines Burgers for your dog. They were of the consistency of playdoh, and looked like something you could make from a Playdoh factory, that came in the shape of the hamburger. They smelled sweet but I wasn't about to eat it.

You can guess where this is going huh? So I dared my brother to try it. His name is Michael and I guess I figured it was a close to Mikey as it could get, so I dared him to try it. He didn't have to eat the whole thing, just a taste. Then I would know what it tasted like.

I could tell after he bit into the burger and abruptly spit it out, that it wasn't at all like we thought.

There came other things like Doggie Donuts, multi-colored looking biscuits in the shape of a donut. Yes, I got "Mikey" to try it and he actually liked to eat these. He said they had the flavor of cookies but a lot more crunchier.

One day I found him hiding under our kitchen sink, eating from a box of Doggie Donuts. I guess I wasn't supposed to see it, so off we went on one of our wild fights. Me, running away, laughing and pointing at him, calling him a dog in hiding, and him, red face and murder looming in his mind.

Ah, fun memories. I just had to share them with you. Now my conscience can rest in silence. For those of you just dying to know, I never ate the Doggie Donuts or Gaines Burgers. I didn't have to.

I had Mikey.

All it took was a dare! In some cases, a triple dog dare!