What is your favorite Christmas movie? Are you a feel good kind of person and It’s a Wonderful Life is your style? Maybe you like the new Christmas classic Elf or how about Christmas Vacation for your holiday humor.
Maybe, just maybe you don’t like Christmas movies at all. If that’s you then know that I will pray Santa still brings you a present and that you will keep on reading.
For me very few holiday movies can beat A Charlie Brown Christmas. The iconic scene of a frustrated Charlie Brown saying,
“Can anyone tell me what Christmas is all about?”
Linus eloquently steps to the stage with blanket in hand and recalls the events of that very first Christmas (click here to watch). It was fifty years ago this month that Linus answered Charlie Brown’s question, but what about today? What about Christmas in 2015?
“Can anyone tell me what Christmas is all about today?”
I can. This past October I experienced what Christmas is all about. My one-year-old son Tekoa and I were flying from from Nashville back to Oregon for a short visit and we needed a place to stay on our first night.
I immediately thought of my good friends Jay and Jenny Douglass who happened to live just a few minutes away from the airport.
Jay and Jenny always give love like they were made of it, so of course they said yes.
When we landed in Portland I got a text from Jay that dinner was ready. We were greeted with a flood of Douglass love and a taco bar straight out of heaven. After a dessert of brownies and ice cream, we set up Tekoa’s pack n’ play in the guest bedroom.
But this was no ordinary guest bedroom: this felt like a five-star hotel.
I brushed my teeth and walked out to say one final goodnight to my wonderful friends. That is when I noticed the door ajar in the room next to me. I also noticed an air mattress on the floor of that room and that’s when it hit me.
Jay and Jenny had given up their own master bedroom to me and Tekoa while they slept on a crappy air mattress in the spare bedroom.
The next morning I had three breakfast options, and Jenny greeted me at the door with a hot coffee.
My friends not only hosted us, but they literally gave up their own bed for this weary traveler and his infant son.
Joseph and and Mary didn’t get the same treatment as Tekoa and I did. They didn’t get the innkeepers five-star room, and they didn’t get a buffet of breakfast delicacies.
It’s ironic that Joseph and Mary celebrated the birth of love on that first Christmas morning yet they didn’t experience love at all from the innkeeper the night before.
Maybe Christmas today is about being a different kind of innkeeper.
Maybe Christmas today is about making room at our Inn for weary travelers.
Maybe Christmas today is about us sleeping in the barn so someone else can have the best love has to offer.
That’s what Christmas today is all about Charlie Brown.
A couple things to consider this week.
1-Who has been a loving innkeeper to you? Text or call them and say thank you.
2-Is there someone you don't want to be a good innkeeper to this Christmas? Can you stop and see love in them this holiday season? A family member, a co-worker, a friend.
3-How have you experienced what Christmas is all about this holiday season? Tell us a story by leaving a comment below.