The Innkeeper

Luke 2:7 (NIV)

and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

Let’s think for a minute about the Innkeeper. Everyone puts him down as being so mean for not making room for a pregnant woman to have a place to give birth; for turning them away. In doing so Joseph had to search for some place warm and safe for Mary to give birth.

Think about this, what were the Inns like in those days? Would it have been a decent place for a woman such as Mary to give birth to the Son of God? What kind of people hung out in them, was there drinking and carrying on. I do not believe, either, that they were that clean or warm. When the Innkeeper looked at Joseph and Mary maybe . . . Just maybe he felt something special and turned them away for that purpose.

The only place Joseph could find was a stable; a nice warm stable with a lot of clean straw. The stable would have been warm from all the animals giving off heat. I just have a feeling that they, too, knew something special was about to happen and kept still and quiet.

As-much-as Joseph loved Mary I can see him cleaning and mucking out the stalls, arranging bales of hay for Mary to have some privacy. Piling them up making it almost like a room so no one, who was passing by, could see her. He would have had to make a bed so Mary could rest. Joseph would have piled fresh hay and covered it with a blanket. Next he would have built a fire for extra heat, boiling water and maybe for cooking a bite to eat. After all that was done and he was waiting for the arrival of his 1st born, the true Son of God, he would have found a trough and washed it out, lined it with fresh hay and a soft warm blanket to lay the infant in. (Luke 2:7and she [Mary] gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

What better way to prove your love for the woman God had chosen for you and to show God that you were worthy of the honor of looking after His Son while He was here on Earth.

I believe God wanted His’ Son to come from the most humble of beginnings. What could be more humble then to be born in a stable?

Maybe that Innkeeper wasn’t so bad after all; who knows? Of course God knows and everything was set in motion for it was His’ will and His’ perfect plan for His’ Son to come down to Earth to save mankind from sin and the grave.

I think I just might look at the innkeeper in a different light. After all, if you look for it you can find the good in just about everyone . . . even an innkeeper who turned the young couple away all those years ago.

Dear Lord, as we think about the Inn Keeper this Christmas help us to look for the good in people and not the bad. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.