The Innkeeper - Let Him In

www.sermonsoftheheart.blogspot.com

Music by: Michael McLean
Video from The Bible Videos and Mormon Messages (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)

Michael McLean's Forgotten Carols have been a Christmas tradition in our family for years. These beautiful carols are not about kindly gift-giving saints, animals indigenous to the north, wintry weather, or even those individuals whose experiences with the infant Christ child or even the adult Messiah are well known and often on our lips. Rather, these carols revolve around some individuals who we often forget to think about and whose experiences with Christ don't get a lot of thought but whose experiences are rich with meaning for us if we give them our attention.

Whether or not Mary and Joseph were turned away from a single inn, multiple inns, or no inns at all, and whether Mary delivered her infant babe in a barn, a courtyard feeding area, or a hillside cave, I find the stirring message of this likely fictional character in the Nativity story compelling and inspiring and one that makes me want to open up the door to my humble home to invite in my Savior this Christmas season as we celebrate His wondrous birth and life and as we strive to be a little more generous and inviting and willing to open our doors to family, friends and strangers alike.

May your homes be warm, laden with bounteous blessings from our Father in Heaven, and filled with the spirit of love, peace, and joy during this holiday season and throughout the year.

Merry Christmas and God Bless!

**********
I am a man forgotten, No one recalls my name.
Thousands of years will fail to fully erase my shame.
But I turned a profit nicely the day that I turned the couple away...
I turned them away...

I didn't sleep that evening, though I'd sold out my place.
Somehow I felt uneasy, something about her face.
Why did I wish that I'd let them stay? I don't think they could have paid...
Or could they have paid?

Restless, I left my bedroom. I walked the streets all night.
Lost in the world I lived in, found by a heavenly light.
Staring at one bright star in the sky, I heard a baby cry.

And I knew where that cry had come from,
'Cuz I'd told them where they could go.
But I didn't think I could face them, and so I walked slowly home
Missing my chance to share in their joy, I never saw the boy.

He never would condemn me. I did that all on my own.
He offered His forgiveness; and ever since then, I've known
He lets us choose each hour of each day
If we'll let Him in to stay.

Let Him in! Let Him in!
Let the peace on earth begin.
Let Him in! Let Him in!
Let the hope and joy begin.

And whether it be in your world today,
Or a crowded Bethlehem Inn,
Find a way. Make Him room. Let Him in!