Advent Week 2: The Innkeeper
FROM THE DESK OF SF CERT ASSISTANT FACILITATOR, JUDY KUZMAN
This Advent reflection is part two of our four-part Advent reflection series for 2025 written by one of our four assistant facilitators. We invited each facilitator to choose a character from the story of Jesus’ birth that they resonated with on the journey. We hope each one provides you with beautiful starting points for reflecting with God in this season & perhaps encourages you to ponder which character in the Nativity story you feel drawn to as well.
P.S. If you are finding these outside of the Advent season, enjoy! They are wonderful reflections in all times of the year.
The Inn I Long For, and the One God Enters
When God Comes ’Round the Back
A hidden aspiration of mine, which I’ve truly romanticized, is the idea of owning an inn. Every “spiritual gift” assessment I’ve taken over the past three decades (which is roughly one billion, particularly in the ’80s) has shouted: hospitality.
I just know I would excel at making rooms feel cozy and inviting, baking oodles of scones, and talking timelessly with guests over an afternoon cup of tea.
And yet—hospitality (philoxenia—love of the stranger) is never only about offering comfort; it’s about making room where there might seem to be none.
There is no mention of an innkeeper in Luke’s Gospel telling of Jesus’ birth — only, “there was no room for them in the inn,” which I suppose could imply there was an actual host turning them away. Some propose “inn” meant an overfull guest house with a lower back room where animals were housed, or that the stable was a cave. Either way, these are rough conditions in which to welcome a Savior.
When our now-adult children were growing up, a book we read throughout the Christmas season was Jesus’ Christmas Party by Nicholas Allan. It’s a story told from the innkeeper’s point of view. At first, he’s grumpy — he is busy and the inn is full, and he gruffly exclaims to weary Mary and Joseph, “ ’Round the back!” guiding them toward a small, rough stable. In fact, he barks at everyone; “ ‘Round the back! ”.
Later, in a sudden turn of events, the innkeeper himself enters the stable and takes a look inside the manger. His words, “There’s nothing special about a baby…” suddenly turn to, “Oh—oh my!” Something shifts; he realizes the stable has become a holy scene, filled with awe and delight, and he joins the celebration.
The innkeeper’s awakening in that children’s story mirrors something I’m slowly learning…
As I consider welcoming the Savior this season, I’m realizing God has often seemed to prefer arriving ’round the back — inhabiting the places I’ve overlooked and would never dare to invite others into–some messy or wounded spaces.
Does “’round the back!” seem like an inhospitable response to God’s desire to take up residence with and within me? Or might it also be an invitation for Jesus to transform an ordinary place into a holy and sacred one?
God came to dwell — and does dwell — in the ordinary home of “me”… where the furnishings aren’t always just right and the scones aren’t served straight out of the oven daily.
As you anticipate welcoming the Savior this season–
Where in your own story might you want to say, “there’s no room here”… and what if that place is exactly where Christ longs to dwell?
What if “no room in the inn” isn’t a barrier but an invitation to welcome God? Do you sense any invitation from God?
What might it look and feel like for you to “make room” for God in new ways?
Christ was born where there was ‘no room.’ How might he also be quietly choosing to inhabit the hidden, ordinary places in you—the ones you might send ’round the back?
While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. Luke 2:6–7