Do you have room?

 I had an idea early on this week for my column.  One morning we drove to school in dense fog with low visibility.  (I sound like a weather girl.)  I utilized the defrost several times and my wipers to seemingly wipe away some of the moisture.  After we made the curve by the high school, my daughter asked if I would please hit the wipers again.  She says I make her nervous on that corner. Whatever!   

I tapped the wipers again.  We immediately had a clear view, and I had a lightbulb moment.  My kids were barely awake, but they got a lesson anyway.  I said “SEE, that foggy, unclear, obstructed view was like your life without Jesus.  Our perfectly clear view now is like your life with Jesus Christ.”  I got a yawn or two, not an Amen, but I was okay with that and quite accustomed to it at this point. 

Another possible theme hit me yesterday when we pruned the rose bushes.  You gardening experts please do not judge me if it is not time yet.  I think we skipped it last year and the bushes were becoming trees and threatening to take over the house.  My husband trimmed, manicured, cut them back…really he butchered them. 

He also worked on my lavender bush.  It was massive, probably a world record winner.  He said everything needed to be cut back and to have some room to breathe and grow.  I had my next “AH-HA” moment.

I thought about all of the things that have been “cut” back or cut out of my life.   I mean taken out in a positive way.  Maybe we are more able to breathe too, just like the plants, when allow some pruning and cut some of the junk, worries, attitudes, habits, and useless activities.  John 15:2 says “He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”  You see, cutting and pruning is good! 

Today though I had to let these topics move into the background of my mind because something else took center stage.  When I heard the familiar Christmas story presented through an amazing drama at church, it seemed new.  Luke 2:7 says “And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” 

I pondered the fact that there was no room for HIM at the inn.  It is so easy for us to hear the story and think that they must have had a room, a better place than the barn for the young expectant mother?  I mean really…couldn’t they make room for Jesus, couldn’t they make room for any mom about to give birth?  Duh! I silently sat in my pew with a row full of kids and applied that thought to my life as our Pastor seemingly perfectly stressed the fact that there was NO ROOM! 

I have invited Jesus into the “room” so to speak of my heart, but do I really have room for Jesus day in and day out in my own life?  Can I make MORE room for Jesus?  What is in the way, what crowds Him out?  If there anything more important than HIM, I am missing out on so much. 

Before the first gift is unwrapped, take some time and reflect about what you make room for in life.  If there is not room in your life for Jesus and if He is not first, you very well may have a day marked on your calendar as Christmas, but you may be missing out on CHRISTmas.