Inviting In

Where I live in Oregon doesn’t get much snow at Christmas time. It’s often grey and rainy. But I love looking at those beautiful images on Christmas cards, pictures of cozy houses with thatched roofs nestled in banks of white snow. The reason they look so inviting is that every window is bursting with light! You can just tell that the inside is warm and bright, even while the outside is cold and dark. The home just can’t contain its welcome. It shines out! Christmas is so much about hospitality, inviting other people in. I think partially it is because the blessed virgin Mary and Joseph didn’t find any “room at the inn,” and so were forced to entertain shepherds in a barn. But they still invited in the poor shepherds because the welcome of Jesus cannot be contained, no matter where He is. Wherever Jesus is, there is hope, and joy, and warmth: in barns and in homes, in cold and in clouds. We are welcome into God’s family, thanks to Jesus our Lord. Is the welcome of Jesus felt in your home this holiday season? Is your home bursting with light and warmth? Do people feel welcome in your home: not just because you have Christmas cookies and hot chocolate, but because they can sense that Jesus is there? This Christmas season, let Jesus spill out of your windows, lighting the whole street with His joy. You don’t know who needs to come in out of the cold, and into God’s loving, eternal family. This is Luis Palau.