12.23.2013

Meager Offerings



Ouch! What happened to his hand? I can tell you that his hand used to hold a lantern.
And that really explains everything. What? You still don't know what happened to his hand?
Well, if  he was holding a lantern, and he was,  then that lantern would have been much coveted by 
each of my sons. One more than the others, but I will not point the finger here. But I'm sure I know exactly who did the deed on the innkeeper. And so, in trying to get the innkeeper's lantern away from his tiny hand, that's probably how the hand AND the lantern disappeared.  
 But I'm just speculating.
The innkeeper's solemn countenance convicts me. He does not seem so merry, does he? Poor guy
has gotten a pretty bad rap all these years for not ousting one of his guests into the cold 
to allow a(nother?) pregnant woman share a room with her husband. How was he supposed to 
know it was the mother of the Messiah? At least he didn't slam the door in their faces - 
there must've been plenty of other innkeepers who had already done that! 
He did make room, however meager it turned out to be.

And consider the directions given by the angel to the shepherds, 
"This will be a sign for you: You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger."
 It's not hard to imagine that there might've even been other newborn babies
among the crowds swelling the sleeping rooms in response to the new taxation.
It would have been much easier to find the only newly-born baby laying in a feeding trough than
it would have been to locate the tiny Messiah among the masses packed like sardines
into Bethlehem's inns.

Worked out pretty well, I think! The innkeeper was an unexpected tool of God's sovereignty!
The Father was not in heaven wringing His mighty hands at some slight delivered by a Hebrew
innkeeper. He was not tsk tsk-ing or shaking His Omnipotent head at the callousness of the
human race in the City of David that night. The Savior placed in a feeding trough was 
a divine foreshadowing ... and an easy place for shepherds to find. 
What we may judge to be the 'meager' offering of the innkeeper was, in truth, exactly what
was called for on that un-Silent Night.

*****

Father, let me be a tool of Your sovereign grace in someone's life this Christmas!
Bless even my most meager obedience and by Your mercy
make it much more than I could ever imagine.




2 comments:

  1. I have enjoyed reading about your nativity pieces...totally love that they are scattered about your home!
    I hope you have a wonderful Christmas with your family...and I pray that each of you is blessed in an extra special way!
    Hope you get to hear a lot of second and third verses too!!

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  2. Thanks, Marie! Your kind words are a Christmas blessing for me! Merry Christmas to you and your entire family - I love to think about you enjoying time with your children and those beautiful grandbabies!!!

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