He came to His own...

“Then, as the afternoon shadows lengthened into evening, Joseph began his search for a proper place for Mary, whose hour had come. Some scholars have suggested reading ‘the inn was no place for them,’ rather than ‘there was no place for them in the inn.’(Luke 2:7) The need was admittedly not just for any shelter, but for privacy and propriety. Yet the traditional meditation is forever valid: The heartsick Joseph on the first Christmas Eve knocking on doors and hearts was repeatedly rejected; Mary waiting prayerfully, quietly abandoned to God’s providence, astride that blessed noble donkey; the Child within her about to be born. ‘He came to His own, and His own received Him not.’ (John 1:11) People closed their doors in the face of the Creator, Savior, and Judge of the universe. It was a prophetic forecast of so many rejections in all the generations yet to come.

The Advent application good Christians have always drawn was to listen for Joseph’s knocking and his plea to open the doors of our homes and hearts for Mary and her Child. ‘To those who did receive Him, He gave them power to become children of God.’(John 1:12)”

~Richard Gilsdorf