“She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” (Luke 2:7) How ironic!  Jesus experienced rejection even before he was born. There was no room for Jesus in the inn, so Mary and Joseph settled for a cave used as a stable for animals. 

While this may have served God’s purpose in taking on our humanity in the humblest of settings, you have to wonder what the innkeeper might have done had he known who Mary and Joseph were and what was about to happen.

We should not be too harsh in judging the innkeeper, for how often have we failed to make room for Jesus in our lives?  There have been times when I made more room for my career than I did for Jesus.  There have been other times, when I did not recognize Jesus in a colleague looking for someone to talk with or a street person looking for help.    

When I worked in New York I would sometimes attend daily mass at St. Matthews Catholic Church just a half block east of Grand Central station.  Since my train arrived about the same time mass started, I was always rushing to get there by the first reading.  One day as I was rushing into the church, a man on the church steps asked me to help him, but because I was so programed to hurry into the church, I rushed right by him. 

As I sat down I thought to myself, “What did I just do?”  Someone was asking for help, and I blew right by him in my haste to get into the church.  I was just like the innkeeper.  I had no room or time for this guy.  When I went back outside he was leaning over the front bumper of a car, vomiting.  I asked if he wanted some breakfast, and we went into a little diner next to the church. 

His name was Richard.  He had been a trumpet player for a band, got fired, started drinking, got rolled, and lost everything.  After connecting him up with the Salvation Army, I saw him a week later.  He was all cleaned up with new clothes and had a suitcase.  He said he was going home to Hartford, Connecticut.   

A couple of days later, there he was again, all beat up, his clothes torn, looking awful.  I asked, “Richard, what happened?”  He just looked at me with hollow eyes and shook his head.  I told him that I was going to buy him a train ticket to Hartford and asked him to meet me at 43^rd and Lexington.  I bought him the ticket, went to 43^rd and Lexington, but Richard never showed up and I never saw him again. 

God never ceases to give us opportunities to make room for him through his son, Jesus.  He is always inviting us to open the door of our hearts to love, to forgive, to serve — to build his Kingdom in the daily circumstances of our lives. 

Are you making room for Jesus today in how you relate to people?