No Place for Them

And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

Luke 2:7

There was simply no place for them.

Luke the physician-turned-Jesus-follower has shown us all we need to know in a mere handful of words. Writers call this writing tight. The tale of how Jesus came to be born in a stable is elegantly and profoundly understated.

Strong’s notes describe Luke’s report of Jesus’ birthplace like this: “There is no drama in how this is told. There is no search for a variety of places to stay or a heartless innkeeper. (Such items are later, nonbiblical embellishments.) Bethlehem was not large and there was simply no other place to stay. The humble surroundings of the birth are ironic in view of the birth’s significance.”*

My creative writer self feels a stab of disappointment as I read Luke’s simple statement. But there are times when simplicity is what we need most. Sometimes circumstances don’t work out the way we wish they would. This is the simple truth.

No place for them in the inn was not rejection. It may not even have been shame. For those of us who have battled shame our entire lives, things can get muddled up. Everything can feel like rejection and loss.

But God is either sovereign, or He is not. There is no middle ground on the matter.

Whether it was because culturally Mary’s pregnancy disgraced relatives in their honor-shame culture, or because all the places in Bethlehem were chock-full of folks traveling in to be counted for the census, there was no place for them in the inn.

An inn was simply not the place the Sovereign Father chose for the birth of His Son.

Sometimes it’s that straightforward. There’s no place for us. The accommodation we think we must have in our urgent time of need may not work out. The job we know would make all the difference just may not be hiring. The door we know if it would just open would change everything may be tightly shut.

Yet God is sovereign and this makes all the difference. He is sovereign over the place we find ourselves, the place we wish we would find ourselves, the place shut up to us, and the cold and prickly place open to us in the dark of night.

When there is no place for us in the inn, we may be on the threshold of the greatest irony of our lives. Our apparent lack may be the place that God has chosen to bring glory that gathers hearts far and near to come and worship Him.

If there’s no place for you today and anxiety is rising, pause and consider the change a manger made to the world on #Christmas. Share on X

I’ll take a manger over a warm bed if it means God with us. How about you?

Lord, choose the right place for Your glory to be revealed in my life this Christmas. Amen.

 

@audreycfrank

*Olive Tree Enhanced Strong’s Dictionary, 22tn v. 7. Enhanced Strong’s Dictionary 2011, 2020 Olive Tree Bible Software, Inc.

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