Read: Luke 2:1-7
The sign “No Vacancy” would have been displayed on the inns’ gates in Bethlehem on the night when Jesus was born. And even today it still hangs in many lives. Normally, a woman in Mary’s condition might expect the simple consideration of a place to stay. But she did not get a room.
Describing that crowded night in Bethlehem, James Hastings said, “It was a time when every available accommodation was called for, and the people of the inn were too busy to recognise that here was a claim which, in their less occupied moments, they never would have denied. And so Christ was simply crowded out. There was no room. Without doubt, it is the same today. Every chamber of the soul is so filled with human interests that there is little room for Christ. There is little – if any – time for Him. And this is true because a thousand other things demand our time. Our interest is drawn off in other directions. Our life is crowded with possessions and pleasures until, strange though it seems, there is no room for the Saviour …except in the stable. If we are so preoccupied as to have no room for Christ in our life, then our life is a failure. This is the test of everything: room for Christ.”
Making room for Jesus means that Jesus, His words (the Bible), His ways, His church, His salvation, love and mercy are on our lips continually and not just one or two times a week when we come to the church. Remember Jesus said, “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 10:32). What better way to confess Jesus than to make speaking of the Saviour and living in His footsteps our daily lifestyle!
There is a way to discover the passions of your life. Just check your schedule. Discover what consumes your hours. You will quickly find out that if something, or someone, is important enough, you will never allow it, or them, to be crowded out by other interests. In that night when Jesus was born, if the innkeeper had known who would be born, surely the “No Vacancy” sign would not have been hung. Do you have any good reason to leave that “No Vacancy” sign hanging in your life?
