No Room

‘There was no room for them at the inn’

(Luke 2: 7)

Up and down the country, in schools and churches and halls, children have been or will be participating in Nativity Plays. There will be Mary and Joseph, angels and shepherds, Wise Men and the Innkeeper, sheep and donkeys all gathered around the manger in the stable. It is a familiar picture.

Except, that is not actually how the story is told in the Gospels!

As most of us are aware, the Wise Men did not turn up until sometime after the birth, and certainly not with the Shepherds. But so fixed in our imaginations is the familiar and traditional picture that it comes as a surprise to many to discover that there is also no mention at all of a donkey, of an innkeeper, of a stable, and – probably – not even of an inn! In spite of the quote (above) from Luke chapter 2, it seems almost certain that the word translated ‘inn’ would have been better translated ‘guest room’.

So, if we want to imagine the picture, it seems more likely that Joseph and Mary were headed to one of Joseph’s relatives’ homes for the census but when they arrive they discover (possibly because of the rest of the family also stopping by for the census) that the guest room is in use. There is no room. So when Jesus is born he is laid in a feeding trough (manger) almost certainly made of stone and not wood, and probably not situated in a stable as we would know it, but in the large downstairs room in the house which was usually occupied by the animals rather than the humans.

All very interesting... but as to whether it really makes any significant difference to the meaning of the account is less certain.

However, what stands out for me (and I am relating this to my current experience) is that as the story tells it, poor Mary and Joseph travel all that way to Bethlehem with Mary heavily pregnant and no doubt thinking that this is a dreadful trek and looking forward to being welcomed by Joseph’s family, when they arrive only to discover there is no room for them.

I can imagine them travelling and trekking with that mixture of despair and hope and then finding that even the little hope they had had been snuffed out.

‘No room’.

If you have been following my posts on my Advent blog you will be aware that I/we have been on a journey of despair these last months... but that this despair has been shot through with hope, for which we have been deeply grateful!

Yesterday, suddenly and sadly, this all went into reverse. Hope seemed to have been snuffed out.

‘No room’.

And yet, after 24 hours in which the (seemingly) growing light has suddenly been engulfed once more with deep darkness, a little, tiny, fragile pinprick of hope has appeared.

We hope and pray, but remain unsure.

‘No room’.