Tuesday, December 8, 2020
![3b-adoration-of-the-shepherds-el-greco[1]](https://thenoontimes.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/3b-adoration-of-the-shepherds-el-greco1.jpg?w=215&h=300)
El Greco: Adoration of the Shepherds
No Room
She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Scowling as we read these words we easily say that we would have offered this small family a room if we had we lived in that place and that time. Yet each day we are offered the opportunity to welcome this small child of hope into a place of rest and refuge that we take time to prepare. Each day we are given the opportunity to offer Christ a place in our hearts and homes.
God says: You prepare for an important sports event, bringing food and party decorations into your home; yet many of my children go hungry. Will you open your hearts and homes to them? You buy and wrap presents, make travel and work plans when a holiday approaches; yet many of my children have no roof under which to shelter. Will you open your hearts and homes to them? You lay down deposits, call family and friends to coordinate a vacation in the mountains, at the beach or in a far-off city; yet many of my children have no families or friends to protect them and no place to shelter from danger? Will you open your hearts and homes to them?
A solitary person can make change in the world when listening to and acting in God.
The Rev. David Buck sits next to the Jesus the Homeless statue that was installed in front of his church, St. Alban’s Episcopal, in Davidson, N.C.
Just one of us can offer a moment of respite, a meal and a place of safety to one who is lost.
The Christ Child and his family call at our door each day.
Do we open our hearts and homes to them? Do we offer this child a room?
Image from: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436571
Read, or listen to the 4-minute podcast, about how a bronze statue of a homeless Jesus started one community at: https://www.npr.org/2014/04/13/302019921/statue-of-a-homeless-jesus-startles-a-wealthy-community
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