There were no rooms left in the inn.
—Luke 2:7
The Bethlehem innkeeper has been the target of many a censorious sermon for his heartless refusal to make room for the Nazareth travelers, compelling Mary to give birth to her baby in a barn.
But it is unlikely that Mary and Joseph were turned away because of coldness and cruelty, but due to every room in the hotel already being occupied.
Many fail to make room for Jesus, not because they deliberately reject him, but because their lives are absorbed with other interests and demands. There isn’t space for him in their jam-packed lives: “they are choked by life’s worries, riches, and pleasures, and they do not [spiritually] mature” (Lk 8:14).
Only so much can be crammed into life.
Don’t let the urgent crowd out the important.