I was born in Dallas, Texas\u2014a city that does nothing small. Big highways. Tall buildings. Big hair (at least back then). I entered the world in Parkland Memorial Hospital, a clean, sterile, well-equipped place with machines that beeped and doctors who knew exactly what they were doing. My mother was just a few miles from home. Everything was prepared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I even arrived with a heart murmur\u2014nothing dramatic, the doctors said. \u201cShe\u2019ll outgrow it.\u201d And I did. Technology diagnosed it. Medicine monitored it. Dallas took good care of me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then there\u2019s Bethlehem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No skyline. No hospital. No nursery wing. No medical charts. Just a small town, a weary couple, and a baby about to arrive with nowhere to go. Some of the saddest words ever spoken echoed through that little town:
\u201cWe don\u2019t have room for you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Can you imagine Joseph? Wanting to be a good husband. A good father. Wanting safety, warmth, dignity for Mary and the child she carried. And door after door closing. No room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why Bethlehem? Why not a palace? Why not a place fit for a king?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because God wasn\u2019t trying to impress the world\u2014He was trying to reach the heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Years later, that same child would hang on a cross, and the message would sound hauntingly familiar: We don\u2019t have room for You here either. Rejected. Unwanted. Pushed aside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And truth be told\u2026 not much has changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even now, Jesus moves quietly from heart to heart, gently asking if there might be room. Not for ceremony. Not for perfection. Just for presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bethlehem reminds us that God doesn\u2019t need big cities or polished spaces. He enters messy places. Crowded lives. Hearts with murmurs, doubts, and little room left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So this Christmas, may we love Bethlehem\u2014not because it was perfect, but because God chose it anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And may we whisper the words Joseph never heard:
\u201cYes, Lord. There is room here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because when Jesus is welcomed in, even the smallest place becomes holy ground.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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