TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15
“And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths and laid Him in a manger,
because there was no place for them in the inn.”
Luke 2:6-7 (ESV)
ROUGH ROAD: A STABLE
MAX LUCADO ON BETHLEHEM AND THE STABLE:
They were too busy. The day was upon them. The day’s bread had to be made. The morning’s chores had to be done. There was too much to do to imagine that the impossible had occurred. God had entered the world as a baby. Yet, were someone to chance upon the sheep stable on the outskirts of Bethlehem that morning, what a peculiar scene they would behold. The stable stinks like all stables do. The stench of urine, dung, and sheep reeks pungently in the air. The ground is hard, the hay scarce. Cobwebs cling to the ceiling and a mouse scurries across the dirt floor. A lowlier place of birth could not exist.
Meanwhile, the city hums. The merchants are unaware that God has visited their planet. The innkeeper would never believe that he had just sent God into the cold. And the people would scoff at anyone who told them the Messiah lay in the arms of a teenager on the outskirts of their village. They were all too busy. (Max Lucado, God Came Near: God’s Perfect Gift)
Part of the rough road that Mary and Joseph traveled was having a stable as a delivery room. No one around them really had time to help her deliver the Savior of the world. It seems like a no brainer looking back. But how often have we missed God at work in a situation only to look back and wonder how we missed what He was doing?
Reflection
Think back on times you’ve missed important moments at home, work or in the life of your friends because you were too busy. Ask God to help you not miss what He wants to do in your life even on the rough road you may be on now. Ask God to help you not be too busy for Him this Christmas.
