It’s been well established for some time now that Mary did not give birth to Jesus in a stable. The word translated “inn” by most of our versions of Luke 2 more likely refers to an upper guest right on. Jesus will have been born in the central living area where humans and animals mucked in together.
Certainly, this corrects one perception, that Christ was born, unwanted, away from people. G came right into the middle of the mess and chaos of family life.
However, I wonder if we go too far in turning this into a positive. It’s still the reality that you would expect a family to give priority and space to the heavily pregnant young girl. Birth would have not been a privatised affair away from tht family but you might still want to give her extra care. Surely others could have moved downstairs to give her space?
This leaves me wondering what Luke means when he says there was no room. Obviously he expected that there should have been room, the guest room was where the baby should have been born.
Is it simply that there was no physical space or was there no room for this baby conceived out of wedlock?
And that left me thinking. First are there ways in which we choose not to have space, time room for others. Do we use shame to exclude them and treat them as not fully welcome.
Further, it still leaves the question about whether we have made room for Christ.
Faithroots 