| Will your Christmas season come with a few moments where you’re not quite sure you belong? Maybe it’s a family gathering or a friend’s party, a work event or a child’s holiday program. Something about the moment, for some reason, just leaves you feeling out of place.
If so, Jesus gets it. “No room in the inn,” remember?
“Regardless of what exactly Luke meant by the word ‘inn,’” writes Russell Moore, “the larger point stands that not only was Jesus born into humble circumstances—placed in what was probably the feeding trough of an animal—but also that his birth was displaced by a crowd of people.”
Moore goes on to quote Thomas Merton, a 1900s Trappist monk, who wrote that Christ “is with those who do not belong… with those for whom there is no room, Christ is present in this world.”
We hope that your holidays are filled with moments in which you feel like you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be. But just in case, if there’s ever a moment when you feel isolated or alone, call this to mind: Jesus has been there, too. With him, you belong. |
