Christmas at the Inn

This is my 39th Christmas, and the first in a hotel.  We're in a new land, far from our familiar- an ocean separates us from the family and friends we hold dear.  As I contemplated this today, tempted to bemoan my station, I was hit by the reality of the first Christmas.

You know the story.  Joseph and Mary were in Bethlehem, away from friends and family.  They weren't in the comfort of an inn- there was no room- so a stable had to make do.  Romanticized depictions fail to convey what must of been the gritty reality- the stench of animals, the anguish of childbirth, the loneliness, discomfort, fear, and unknown.  That first Christmas had none of the traditions we now hold dear.  And yet, hope.

"The people walking in darkness

    have seen a great light;

on those living in the land of deep darkness

    a light has dawned." - Isaiah 9:2

The birth of the Christ- foretold since the beginning- had finally come.  God would not abandon us to our justly deserved fate; He would not leave us in darkness.  He would save us from the curse by becoming the curse for us.  Nobody at the time knew how, or when, it would happen.  But Jesus had arrived; God was fulfilling His promise.

That first Christmas, there may not have been physical comforts or familiar faces.  There was something more; something better.  The Lord arrived; a light had dawned.  And perhaps there's another message in that first, messy Christmas scene: we can rejoice regardless of our present situations, be they good or bad, filled with fun or fraught with hardship.  Because our hope is not in our circumstances but a God who keeps His promises. And behold, Jesus is making all things new, far as the curse is found.

Merry Christmas!  Joy to the world; the Lord is come!