One of the sweetest and at the same time one of the saddest verses in our Bible is Luke 2:7. “And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” The sweetest part of that is of course the beautiful scene of God entering our world as a human. The saddest part is the words “no room.”

No room for Jesus. I wonder how many homes on Christmas day had no room for Him. Our Christmas celebrations tend to be 99% about us and 1% about Him. We stop by the manger to gaze at the baby and then move on to our festivities and frivolities. No room. No room in our Christmas celebrations and no room in our day-to-day work, leisure, and life. Maybe Luke misspelled the last word of that verse. He meant to say, “there was no room in the end.” At the end of it all, we have no room for Him.

It is sad, isn’t it? It is sad how little time we have for Jesus in our daily life. No room. No room for devotion. No room for prayer. No room for worship. No room to see Him standing near by waiting for our attention. We have relegated Jesus to a small place outside of our routines where we are not disturbed by Him or bothered by His cry for attention. We are satisfied with the meager provision of space we have allowed for Him. We have treated Him as interference instead of Immanuel. We have treated Him as transient instead of Savior. We have treated Him as common instead of King.

Is there room? Can we move Jesus from outside in the stable into the center of our home? Can we invite Him into our lives as Master, Lord, Savior, and King? Can we honor him as did the angels, shepherds, and wise men? Can we declare that Jesus birth was not the end but the beginning? Our Savior has come. Let us adore Him now and forever. Amen.

Christmas is not just the celebration of a baby. It is a celebration of the event described in John 3:16. “God so loved the world that He gave us His only Son.” He gave His Son to be our Savior. He gave His Son to satisfy the requirement for a blood sacrifice. The innocent lamb of God was given to the world so that “whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Christmas is a celebration of the gift of God. The gift is His only son, our Savior. Jesus entered our world as a baby, but we are not intended to focus on a sweet, gentle, cuddly, little baby. My dear mother has often enjoyed telling me about her memories of me as baby and young child. That probably shouldn’t bother me, but it does. I want her fondest memories of me to be who I have become. I want her to enjoy who I am as a man, not who I was as a baby.

We must be careful how we see the baby in the manger. Will Ferrell, in the 2006 movie Talladega Nights, praying as his family is preparing to eat, begins his prayer, “Lord baby Jesus.” After continuing to address Jesus that way, his wife objects saying, “Jesus did grow up.” Ricky Bobby (Ferrell) responds with, “I like the Christmas Jesus best.” How sad. The baby Jesus cannot be celebrated without also seeing the resurrection Jesus. The baby Jesus is not more precious to us than the miracle working Jesus. Believers cannot see the baby in the manger without also seeing the man on the cross.

When we celebrate Christmas, the baby reminds us of the humanity and the humility of Jesus. The manger scene is a precious picture, but it is precious because in it we see God in the flesh, a sacrificial lamb, the gift of salvation, the love of God. Christmas is a celebration of a new life that makes possible our new life in Jesus. When we look at the baby in the hay, it is most important that we see not what He is, but who He is. He is the Son of God, our Savior, our Lord!