12/21/2025
When Joseph and Mary said yes to God’s plan, they likely didn’t think this would mean enduring the grueling journey of the ninety miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem. And they were certainly not expecting there to be no room to physically give birth to the promised Messiah, the Christ child, the King of the universe. But here they were.
So who exactly opened the door to the inn and gave Joseph and Mary the bad news? Who exactly is this innkeeper we’ve been angry at for two thousand years?
The Bible doesn’t exactly give us much here. Luke doesn’t describe a specific innkeeper, standing at the door of the Bethlehem Hilton with a wagging finger and a no-vacancy sign. Much of what we think about this mythical figure is in our sacred imagination.
And yet, though the Bible doesn’t mention an innkeeper, we have to imagine that there was someone present who let Joseph and Mary know, to quote Luke, that there was no room at this inn.
And as he was making his final rounds, closing up his establishment and beginning to settle in for the night a couple suddenly showed up at his door. A disruption, an inconvenience, a problem he didn’t plan for.
This is, by the way, how God often enters our lives.
Where we least expect Him, He comes most fully. He invades our lives; He goes where there is no room so we might find a home in Him. The One who had no home is making a home for us (John 14:3). The One who had no place to lay His head is our rest, our comfort, our joy.
In the end, the innkeeper—whoever he or she was—found room for Jesus. This Christmas I pray the same can be said about you and me.
Excerpted from The Characters of Christmas by Dan Darling.
