COME ON IN ANYWAY!
’Twas the night of the big Christmas play at the church.
All the boys and girls had rehearsed their lines over and over. Now each child knew his part by heart. The dress rehearsal had gone without a hitch. Each memorized line was recited flawlessly.
The actual performance, however, did not go quite as planned.
For Joey, who played Joseph in the church Christmas play, the night of his big debut had finally arrived. Realizing his parents and grandparents were in the audience, eight-year-old “Joseph” was in rare form on stage. He pounded frantically on the innkeeper’s door. When the boy-innkeeper peered from behind the cracked door, Joseph kept laying it on thick. “Please, sir,” he pleaded, “my wife is about to have a baby! Don’t you have any room for us in the inn?”
Jimmy, the second-grade innkeeper, knew his lines perfectly. Countless times he had practiced his stern speech of refusal: “I’m sorry. There is no room in the inn.” But the night of the play Jimmy himself was overcome by the desperate tone in “Joseph’s” cry for help. He just had to do the right thing. So, Jimmy the Innkeeper blurted out, “I know what they want me to say but – come on in anyway!”
There’s no room in today’s secular “inn” for Jesus either. Our culture has schooled us repeatedly to bar Him from any entrance into our lives. It’s society’s autocratic way of ordering us to fall into line: “Learn your lines: ‘There is no room for Him.’” Just note the frantic, bizarre attempts to morph “Merry Christmas” into “Happy Holidays.” Today, as then, there’s no place for Him. They’re scared spitless of His name, much less His presence.
We’ve been well coached in our day to deny Him any access. Secularists have pronounced the verdict: “No room for Jesus.” But still He stands at the door and knocks. But be forewarned: When Jesus comes in He will turn the status quo upside down. So this Christmas defy the culture umpires who try to define for you what’s “in” and what (or who) is “out.” Just let Him in . . .
into your home . . .
into your activities . . .
into your conversations . . .
into your family gatherings . . .
and most of all . . . into your heart.
No matter how much it might mess up everyone’s little play, along with Jimmy let’s do the right thing. Jesus, I know what they want me to say — but come on in anyway!
“God gave Christ the highest place and honored His name above all others. So at the name of Jesus everyone will bow down, those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. And to the glory of God the Father everyone will openly agree, ‘Jesus Christ is Lord!’” (Philippians 2:9-11, CEV).
Tags: Christmas