An Inn Keeper Year
I'd like to give a voice to my favorite character in the Christmas story.
What does this have to do with being a wedding planner with a wedding planning blog?
Well, probably nothing, and bless my Search Engine guys I have no idea what they're going to do with this content.
Anyway, back to Christmas.
. . .
I bet if the Inn Keeper got a second shot, he would frantically tap his sleepy wife on that silent night and say,
"Honey, get up, Jesus Christ needs a place to be born and he needs our bed!"
I mean that poor guy. He's a local business owner and
THIS.
WAS.
BUSY SEASON.
Everyone has to go to their hometown to register, thanks to Caesar Augustus, and this Inn Keeper has every room booked out for the next 4 weeks. If I were him, I don't know if I would have the presence of mind to find a spot for a couple more exhausted customers. After handing out extra towels, sweeping, stocking the complimentary cookies and doing check-ins for tired, cranky people ALL DAY, I don't doubt he was feeling pretty spent.
And then two more knock and he says honestly,
"We have families in every room."
But he sees the girl that looks like she's about to pop and says,
"If you're looking for a spot to rest, I certainly don't mind if you find a place in the barn. The goats won't bite."
. . .
I've had an Inn-Keeper year, myself, giving Jesus what I have available. But when I look back, I would give more. If I knew the profound beauty of what was REALLY going on, I would have given up my room. I would have given more than $5. I would have given time and attention and care.
But just like the Inn-Keeper who did what he could with what he had, Jesus took it and said,
"This'll work."
This will work in my big plan and purpose for you and for the world. Even though you could have given me more of what I have already given you, I receive this offering, and all is grace.
Grace takes enough and makes it abundance.
Grace takes a stable and 2000 years later it's still Holy Ground.
Grace takes my impatient prayers and turns them into provisions and promises kept.
And if you've had an Inn Keeper year too, where you look back and could have given more, just remember that Grace will say,
"This'll work."