While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born.

Luke 2:6

We have a powerful, but likely wrong, picture of the first Christmas in our minds. We imagine Mary and Joseph, a young, tired couple, arriving in a crowded Bethlehem. The town is bustling with people for the census, and a desperate search for a room leads them from one door to the next, only to be turned away. We picture a cold, uncaring innkeeper telling them, “There is no room in the inn,” a phrase that has become a symbol of a world too busy for Jesus. In this version of the story, Jesus' birth is a product of hurry, anxiety, and last-minute chaos. We see this scene and it feels relatable; it bleeds the same stress and worry that we feel during our own holiday preparations.

But what if this is a myth we’ve projected onto the sacred story? In Joseph's hometown, it’s highly unlikely that family and friends would have left a pregnant woman to give birth in the street. The word translated as "inn" could very well mean "guest room". This small, but important, detail changes everything. It suggests that while the guest room in a relative’s home was occupied, Mary and Joseph were likely cared for by family. God was in control, and the birth of Christ was part of a planned, peaceful, and unhurried event. He had rolled out the red carpet for His son's arrival. Instead of chaos, there was a calmness and peace that we often miss.

Our modern view of Christmas is filled with deadlines, shopping lists, and social obligations. We mistakenly judge the first Christmas by our own frantic circumstances, and it often comes up lacking. But the reality is that Christ’s birth was marked by a quiet peace and the care of a family, inviting us to stop projecting our modern anxiety onto the first Christmas.

When anxiety about a Christmas task surfaces, pause and replace that hurried thought with a truth about God's calmness.

Questions for Reflection

1. How has the popular image of the "hurried inn" influenced your own feelings and expectations about the Christmas season?

2. What is one specific task or event this week that is causing you anxiety, and how can you intentionally replace that feeling with a truth about God's calmness?

3. Jesus’ birth was marked by a quiet peace. How can you seek to bring a quiet, unhurried peace to your own Christmas preparations today?