Room

This, I believe, is the perfect word for our Advent season.  My wheels started turning while baking my mother’s favorite cookie recipe for a church function.  I started to reminisce about the past and had also recently heard a song (which you can listen to at the end) called “Make Room” by Casting Crowns.  I was inspired!  Childhood memories continued to flow in my head, thinking back to the time I shared a bedroom growing up with my older sister.  I decided to consult her to discuss, from her perspective, what it was like sharing a room, as a teenager, with her sister who was 8 years younger.  Who wants to share their room with an annoying younger sibling (not that I was)?

During our conversation, my sister shared there were times she wanted to invite girlfriends for a sleepover, but there was no additional room with me there.  But my mother, she said, would make room to satisfy us both by putting me up in my parents’ room on my dad’s old army cot (which I thought was very cool).  So, everyone was happy!  Even though she probably wished for her own room, neither of us recalled my big sister locking me out, exchanging cross words, or even being annoyed with me.  Thinking back, I guess she always made room in her heart for her little sister.

When we think of Mary and Joseph’s panic, being in labor, and finding no one that would make room so she could safely give birth, wasn’t it more than that?  Had the innkeepers known who Mary held in her womb, would they have been more willing to find room for them?  Were they so caught up with other distractions, they chose to ignore Mary and Joseph’s desperate pleas?  Many times, for us, finding room isn’t about the physical space or measurement of time, but what you and I are willing to do from our hearts.  My sister must have loved me enough to share her teenage years with me and not lock me out of her life.  She always made room for me, despite her, I’m sure, longing for privacy at times.

As we continue on our Advent journey, let’s remember to make room in our hearts for our family, friends and others with whom we come in contact during this busy season.  I pray we all  experience a renewed spirit of patience, understanding and love.  After all, we are making room for the birth of our Savior, Jesus, in our hearts.

“Now it happened that, while they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to a son, her first-born.  She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.”  Luke 2: 6-7