Over 2,100 years ago a baby was born to a young girl. The conditions of that birth were anything but desirable. If you have ever tried to get a motel room after a long day of traveling, you know that the last thing you want to hear at the registration desk is; “sorry we are all sold out.”

In over 30 years of traveling I have heard that many times. There were even times when we had reservations and our room had been rented for the night before we arrived. I know a little bit of how Mary and Joseph felt when the inn keeper told them there was no room for them. The fact that Mary was, at any moment, going to have a baby would have definitely been more to deal with than we ever experienced in our travels.

To get in out of the weather, the inn keeper allowed them to stay in the stable where the animals were housed for the night. To add to the frustration, this was not a journey that Mary and Joseph would have taken had they not been forced to do so. They were required to report to the Roman authorities to be counted in a census. That night in the stable, the history of mankind was set on a new path as a baby was born among the livestock. He was wrapped in clothes and a bed was made for him in the hay manger that the animals ate from.

That is the greatest event in history, yet it just sounds like another undesirable situation that two people endured a long time ago. I can’t help but think that there are many things that happen in our lives that seem to be no big deal and yet they are molding our lives for good or bad. Could our perception of these things be clouded by our environment and desire?

“Tis The Season” is something that we have heard since childhood but it could be deeper that we ever imagined. “Tis The Season” to give and receive gifts, have family dinners, decorate our houses, and celebrate Christmas; but there is more. When we celebrate the birth of that little baby born in a stable, we are recognizing the magnitude of an event that not only changed the destiny of mankind, but changed all of creation. Because of His birth, this baby, born in a stable, went on to open up a way that we can have a relationship with the Creator of the universe.

These are the things we are celebrating at the Gathering Place every Wednesday evening at 7 and Sunday morning at 9:30 and 10:30. Think about celebrating with us.