Christmas Week: Empty [3]

"And there was no room for them in the inn" -Luke 2:7
As I look out the window there are two empty bird feeders staring back at me; I guess that's probably why for the last few days there haven't been any birds around. My neglegience in refilling them has caused the singing to stop ...... I will get to that later this morning. Emptiness is something that a lot of people feel at this time of the year for one reason or another, but it certainly doesn't help when those of us who could in some way minister to that void aren't available. What if Joseph and Mary had found room in the inn; there was a room available you know - the innkeepers room. Now the predestination folk wish me to know that that's not the way God planned it, and they know this how? Who of us could be so arrogant as to proclaim we know what God has on his mind? Venture a little ways out of your doctrinal fortress with me for a moment - humor me. What a story that would have been if Mary had had Jesus in an inn full of jostling, cursing, drunk and discontented people? We could have gotten enough sermons from those short verses to last an untold number of Advent series, you will concede God does do miracles in the midst of utter chaos, right? [remember in the beginning; last night I saw a little of a program about how the earth was born and it had all these shooting meteors bombing the planet creating all kinds of explosions and such, and I thought that must have been before the cooling off period when water began to cover the earth, then God stepped in and began to do His thing, maybe there was a light show for heaven before the hard work of creation, go figure].... at least in the inn Joseph and Mary wouldn't have been alone.. I can't imagine which would be worse, smelly coarse shepherds or enebreated spectators? Okay, now you can return to your castles. I think the point in this speculation for me is that the inn keeper didn't even offer ... nor did he have enough compassion to consider it - at least that how I think he responded when denying them; maybe that wasn't the case, maybe exhaustion had sucked the last ounce of care from his tired mind, or the missus just wouldn't consent to another dirt bag traveler. How did I travel so far from those empty bird feeders, those birds that found comfort and nourishment from the seeds provided may be going hungry because of me, and whose to say perhaps they miss the communal fellowship of birds fighting off each other to get to the feeders, now there's an oxymoron ......... or maybe we're just left with a moron, me?
Did I tell you yesterday, have a great Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.