Keeping Jesus the Central Focus of our Holidays

This is an excerpt from Salvation has Come: 25 Christmas Devotions in Luke by Gregg Matte.

Early in the season years ago, we brought all the Christmas decorations down from the attic—that annual tradition and necessary chore—to get ready for the blessed celebration of Christmas. Each box was full, but one of the most special to us was the one that contained our nativity scene, gifted to us by family many years ago.

I opened the box and carefully unpacked each character, placing them in their positions, but I couldn’t find the baby Jesus. It’s not much of a nativity with only Mary and Joseph and a few farm animals but no Savior of the world. The symbolism of the empty cradle struck me: without Jesus nothing else makes sense—both in the Christmas season and in life. He’s the centerpiece of the nativity and the center point of our faith. You and I know this, but the innkeeper of Luke 2 was completely unaware of who he was turning away.

We don’t read that the innkeeper was a terrible guy; we just read that his rooms were filled. He wasn’t recorded for all eternity as slamming the door in Mary’s face or telling Joseph to scram. He was just out of room and probably too busy to mess with a young couple while tending to a full inn.

The Feast of Tabernacles was happening so it was the inn’s “busy season.” In the midst of his equivalent to our presents to wrap, errands to run, and food in the oven, I imagine the innkeeper just motioning to the stable around back. Inns of this time period typically had a section for people and another for livestock. Since the human section was filled, the innkeeper resorted to saying, “You can be on the property just not in the heart of my home.”

This is often where we end up in the season of Christmas—with fast-paced, busy calendars filled with endless to-do lists and too many credit card swipes to count. Jesus is on the property, somewhere, but not in the center of our Christmas.

The nativity is considered and likely on display, but a focus on the central member is missing. He’s not central because we are already filled up. We’ve eaten too many chips before the enchiladas arrived. We’ve Cyber Monday-ed or Black Friday-ed so much the core of Christmas is misplaced, behind the house with the animals rather than in the center of it all.

There is no room in the inn of our hearts, even though much of what fills our time is good, like kids’ activities, church presentations, parties to attend, travel plans to secure, and presents to buy. And that’s true of me as a pastor, ironically, with Christmas messages to prepare. This flurry from Thanksgiving to Christmas leaves us filled to the brim but empty to the bone. There’s just not enough room left in our hearts to ponder and praise.

Psalms 10:4 haunts: “There’s no accountability, since there’s no God” (CSB).

But be encouraged! You can set out to have a Christmas season that looks different from years past. You can slow down, savoring the truth of what God has done through Jesus. You can prepare room for Him in your heart and life. It’s fine to keep a busy schedule, but don’t let the busy schedule keep you from the Hero of the nativity. A smile on our face and a word of praise on our lips creates room for the Savior in this season and any other.

Thankfully, with more searching in the box from the attic that stored our nativity, I found baby Jesus, and the manger was complete. He took His rightful place in the middle of the scene, the center of attention. May we rightly order our lives in the same way.

Joy to the world, the Lord is come

Let Earth receive her King

Let every heart prepare Him room.