Make Room

I make room for things that are important to me. I eat every day and sleep several hours each night even though my “to do” list is not much shorter today than it was yesterday. I fit in a workout a few times a week. I manage to find a place for that cute new something for the house that I don’t really need – but really like. After all, it was on sale. I have dinner with a friend. I spend my lunch break running errands. I check in to see what everyone is up to on Facebook and find a few more projects I would like to create from Pinterest. I multitask as I find an hour to squeeze in my favorite TV show while I fold laundry and cook dinner and text on my Blackberry -yep all at the same time. Oh, and I find time to have at least one Dr. Pepper a day…It is my favorite!  Silly examples – right? I wonder what the innkeeper thought as he turned away Mary and Joseph that holy night so long ago. He had no room – it was that simple. Do we?
The Christmas season is here. Our calendars are packed full, our bank accounts are closing in on empty as we buy all those gifts and our hearts and lives are crowded with things we deem important, but have we made room for Jesus?
Jesus could have come to us in many ways. The simplicity of His birth is extraordinary and sometimes hard to grasp. Jesus could have been born in a mansion- he was a King. Instead, He came to a dirty smelly manger and His birth was announced by common shepherds instead of Kings - THE greatest of all miracles in the midst of total simplicity. Today, Jesus still wants to meet us in the midst of our simple daily lives. It seems too easy and too good to be true, doesn’t it? 

The very heart of Christmas is JESUS - Emanuel, God with us – with me – and with you. Christmas is not a date on a calendar. Christmas is a way of life that celebrates the presence of God in the simple, ordinary happenings of daily life: where we go and what we do - the smile we give a stranger or the patience we choose in the crowd of impatient shoppers.

God is knocking on the door of our hearts asking to come in. I pray we all make room for the ONE that the Christmas season is all about- and not just during the Christmas Season – every day and every moment of our lives. Open the door and welcome him in!