(LUC. 2, 7)
"There was no room in the inn."
No, neither was there room in the golden regal halls in Jerusalem nor
in the palace of the high priest. Therefore the angels--those heavenly
messengers--came to neither the inn nor Jerusalem. It is not with the
angels as with the invader's hordes in Belgium--they do not intrude
upon foreign soil, sword in hand. They are the messengers of peace, and
visit only those who have room for Jesus.
And here we behold first of all the shepherds on the field near
Bethlehem. In their hearts there was _room_ for Jesus; the sweet music
from Heaven above found the _way open_ to these men.
They had been sitting out there watching how old and young flocked to
the City of David to register on the tax list. It must have been a sore
trial for them to think how God's people had come under a foreign yoke:
Wasn't, then, all hope dead? Were not the living conditions of Israel
so desperate; the people themselves so harassed that it must needs be
impossible for God to fulfill His promises from the ancient days of
yore? They bent their heads, sighing heavily.
But the sigh soared upward.
Thus they sat in the stillness of the night, bent under the sufferings
of the age, as in former days Israel sat at the rivers of Babylon:
Nobody dared play the harp! Nay--who would really be able to let the
harp chords burst out in a song of joy--under _such conditions_? That
would have been almost levity.
But the sigh had ascended up high, and the Angel stood before them
saying: I can! I can make the harp play a song of joy. I come from the
mansions of Heaven with a cheering message: "Fear not, for behold, I
bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For
unto you is born this day, in the City of David, a Saviour, which is
Christ the Lord----"
And then the first of all jubilant Christmas hymns was borne upon the
pure lips of angels and carried all over the earth. That was the sweet
_music from Heaven_ which shall never die.
It shall sound for all those who sit in misery, or who sigh because of
their poverty--for those who think that their life has become so turned
upside down that nothing can ever be righted again--for those who sigh:
No, under such circumstances we cannot sing the cheery songs. To all
these it shall be said: _It is not impossible, at all!_ It doesn't
matter so much how your living conditions are, difficult or easy, dark
or bright, nor how disrupted your life may be. What does matter, is
whether or not you have room for Jesus.