Come with me for a moment to the inn. The journey’s been difficult and long with your heart and your soul heavy with care. So was Mary’s journey! It was difficult too as she carried the heavy load of a babe, the Savior of the world, about to be delivered. Can you imagine the ridicule she must have taken from those who knew her? The offenses she felt along the way? The rejection she must have faced in the event of God’s calling on her life. Oh yeah, her journey was difficult and her road to Bethlehem was painful, but that was just the way it had to go down so that God could work His plan.
See the inn? See how busy it is? See the baggage left in heaps by so many travelers, so weary, so worn, so anxious to get lodging for their weary bodies and aching feet? Mary needed it too and imagine Joseph, caring so deeply for her but being told, “Sorry, there’s not a room left here. All I can do is show you a stable.” A pieced together shack lined with straw for the animals? Yeah, but it was shelter for the night and a place to lay a couple of weary heads, and hearts and minds, so it was all good.
Have you been there at all? To a place that doesn’t offer much protection or stability? A place of vulnerability? A place where hurt runs deep? A place everyone has the spotlight but you or maybe the critical spotlight is on you and only you and it’s not comfortable because what been said is not true? Have you been there? Where everyone has the shelter but you? Ah, beautiful soul, And then ~ there’s your baggage! That dreadful baggage! That dreadful, heavy load you’ve carried from pillar to post for so long! It’s overwhelming too, isn’t it? But there’s hardly a place to put it down for the night except on a dirty, mud floor in the midst of straw? But really, beautiful soul, just lay it down, even there. Give it up! Let it go! Forget it! And forgive it! ~ The journey’s over for now! It’s time to find a quiet moment’s rest for a few hours. Something new is about to happen.
Mary and Joseph put it down and rested there on that floor of mud and the Savior of the world, their Savior, began there! It’s there they met Him face to face. It’s there where God became flesh in that obscure, desolate place and you got to know, He’s still there today ~ in all the places of broken, hurt, pain, insecurity, nothingness, emptiness, loneliness, ridicule and rejection. Yeah, In all the places of obscure and desolate. If that’s where you find yourself on this day in real-life and real-time, He’s there with you. You can know, He’s been there, done that, and knows your hurt. He came to light the darkness, mend the broken, heal the pain, forgive the sin, save the sinner and bless the soul. He desires to give you all that you need, right here on the mud floor, at the inn of rejection and perhaps bitterness this day. Take the stable with Him and let Him show you the way out to victory in this celebration of Advent! Aren’t we thankful for a Savior who left the glories of heaven to be born in such a lowly place in order to reach out into all the lowly places around a world in need?
1 John 4: 14
“And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.”
Matthew 1:21
“She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
Hope and Healing In Hard Places 