Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. Revelation 3:20
“I don’t think that it’s a coincidence that Luke used the same Greek word to describe the guest room in which there was no room for Jesus to be born and the guest room which he shared the Passover with his disciples on the night before he died.
The One for whom there was no guest room in Bethlehem now invites his followers into the guest room where, as the host at the table, he takes bread, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to them…
In that upper room, around that last Passover table, confronted with the astonishing self-giving love of God in Christ, we are invited to take down the No Vacancy signs and allow Christ to come in…
The gospel is the story of the relentless intrusion of God’s love that refuses to acknowledge the No Vacancy signs we post around our lives. It means there’s always hope for every one of us. Is there room in your life for Christ to be born?”
James A. Harnish in When God Comes Down: An Advent Study for Adults (Nashville: Abingdon, 2012) 36-39.
Special thanks to my wife, Jenni, who sent me photos of pages 33-40 of this book for my edification yesterday. It was so good I just had to share it. Lord willing with safe travel, I will arrive home just after lunch today.
To make room for Jesus this Christmas, what do we have to do? Clean up the mess? No. Just open the door, and perhaps replace the No Vacancy sign with a big welcome mat! Without Christ enriching our lives it is absolutely impossible to be generous.