30 December 2020

Don’t you love an upgrade! I’m sure everyone who ever gets one feels spoilt.

When airlines flew more before covid 19, you sometimes got an upgrade of your seats.

When you buy an outfit and find that today it’s 30% off – bargain! It’s happened to me a few times.

I was so proud of my oldest grandson from the practice to the real thing he was upgraded from shepherd in the nativity play to Joseph. How special must my grandson have felt to get “an upgrade.” He was nervous but thrilled. He has only just turned 6 but displayed to everyone a maturity above his years.

He walked by the side of the donkey and Mary so serious and respectful but when he came to the inn (the hotel of the day) he asked for a room for his pregnant wife. When the innkeeper shook his head, he pleaded with his hands, “Please! Can’t you see my wife is about to have a baby.”

Again, the innkeeper said, “No.” It struck me that Joseph would have done his utmost to get his wife a place for her and the impending birth.

Then the narrator said – there is no room for them in the inn, but the innkeeper due to Joseph’s persistence said there is a stable with the animals that they could use.

I was struck by those words, “There was no room for them in the inn” – is there any room in our house for Christ? Or does he have to live in the garage, in the shed?

Is there room in my heart,  my internal house, for Jesus, the hope of all?

Or do I say sorry, shaking my head, no there is no room. I’m full of “other things.”

When the baby is born, he is laid in a manger – in an animals feeding trough. The King of Kings who has come into the world to save us, who will feed us with eternal life, finds a lowly stable as his first home.

Will he find an invitation to our homes? Will we invite him to forever feed us with sustaining love and life-giving bread?

I have been reflecting on this quote that I recently discovered:

In life and death, keep close to Jesus and give yourself into his faithful keeping; he alone can help you when all others fail you. He is of such a kind, this beloved friend of yours, that he will not share your love with another; he wishes to have your heart for himself alone, to reign there like a king seated on his rightful throne. If only you knew the way to empty your heart of all things created. If you did, how gladly would Jesus come and make his home with you.

Thomas à Kempis

As we move into a new year, a new season in all our lives, it is not too late to invite Jesus in. It is not too late to declutter, to clean out our home and to make a place for Jesus to come and dwell with us.

Let us ask the Holy Spirit to soften our hearts and find room for Jesus. Be encouraged that your life would then be the best it could be. Looking ahead into 2021 gives us amazing possibilities with Jesus accompanying us. With Jesus in the central, important part of our home and with Jesus as the heartbeat in our hearts 2021 cannot but be the best year ever.

May these jottings from my journal inspire you to believe in and fall in love with Christ- the hope of the world, as stated in Jeremiah 17:7, ‘Blessed is the man who believes and trusts in and relies on the Lord and whose hope and confident expectation is the Lord!’

Love

Rosemary

Every week groups of ladies meet together to chat about the things I raise in my weekly blog post and to chat about life in general. We call these ‘Heart Connect’ groups. If you would like more information please click HERE.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Is there room in your heart for Jesus?

Where do you need to declutter to allow space for Him?