My dad is a road warrior. Over Thanksgiving he drove down to Texas by himself to visit with our family. Last night he reminded me that he can still drive well in the week before he turns 85. Then he admitted that he sometimes falls asleep. This, he confessed, is a problem. My early memories of travel include many evenings when we drove into a town late in the night to find a hotel room. Remember the orangish-red neon signs which said, “Vacancy”? Above them was another neon sign with the word, “No.” If only the bottom word was lit up, we had a chance of stopping for the night. Sometimes, we would drive the main street of a small town and find every “NO” lit up. Then we headed on wearily to the next town.
Every inn in Bethlehem had the “No Vacancy” signs lit when Joseph and Mary made it to Bethlehem. But why were they there? Caesar ordered a census. Joseph went to the town of his ancestral family. Naomi and Ruth had traveled to the town named, “House of Bread,” in their day. Laban offered them hospitality and married Ruth. A few generations later, David was born in their line. Joseph and Mary both descended from David. When the bread of life, Jesus, was born in the “House of Bread,” there was no room for him.
Luke doesn’t tell us that there was an innkeeper. We assume one, because, in absence of neon signs, somebody told Joseph and Mary, “No.” In our “Jesus window” at Tallowood we have a picture of a manger filled with hay. The bread of life, wrapped in cloths, was placed in a feeding bin. From that manger, he would offer sustenance to a starving world. Later, John tells us that Jesus identified himself, the great I Am, as “the bread of life.” Jesus continued, “The one who comes to me will never go hungry. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
After all of our holiday food, if we find that we are still hungry and thirsty, I have good news. Jesus is the only one who can fill the vacuous emptiness in our souls. Will we welcome him today? Next Sunday at Tallowood, we will come back to the table to eat and drink and remember Jesus’ words, “Take and eat. This is my body, which is for you . . .” With the manna of life, Jesus will fill our hungry souls.
