Over the years I’ve developed a love / hate relationship with hotels. As nice as it is to be away from home, sometimes in really plush surroundings, there are always the thoughtless people who talk loudly on the way back to their rooms at two o’clock in the morning, or slam their doors at ungodly hours, or the air conditioning breaks down or rattles away all night.
Still, if I’ve often felt I couldn’t wait to get home, imagine how Mary and Joseph felt on that first Christmas. The distance they had travelled from Nazareth to Bethlehem may only have been eighty miles, but it may have taken a week to accomplish and Mary was heavily pregnant, most likely riding on the bony, uncomfortable back of a donkey. And what awaited the couple when they arrived at the place where they were to be taxed? Not a beautiful Christmas-card pitch-roofed stable with fat little cherubs flying around but, rather, a cave reserved for the animals, at the back of a way-side inn, most likely warm from the animals’ breath, but smelly, dirty and unhygienic… worse than any hotel you or I have ever stayed in!
But Mary and Joseph were only passing through. Shortly after the birth of Jesus they were on their way back home to Nazareth, with a sense of relief, I’m sure.
And Christmas reminds us that we’re only passing through this world. We’re citizens of another kingdom, God’s kingdom of heaven. For one day in the year we focus on those less fortunate than ourselves; we try to get on with relatives we try to avoid the rest of the year; we give generously to charities we would ignore at any other time. Christmas gives us a glimpse of what this world could be… don’t leave it until the next world to bring some of God’s peace and joy into your own life and the lives of those around you!
Have a really happy and blessed Christmas and New Year.
Kevin Ashby
