Prepare Him Room

12/11/2024

Written By: Paige Wassel

Two weeks until Christmas, and our schedules are packed. We’re stringing the lights and decking the halls, shopping for presents, baking cookies, and going to Christmas parties. In this time of busy-ness and beloved traditions, have we also made room for Jesus?

As Christians, this is the season we celebrate God coming into our world as a fragile baby, born to Joseph and Mary in a lowly stable in Bethlehem. As we read in the gospel of Luke, chapter 2, angels heralded the good news of Jesus’s arrival to shepherds in the fields nearby, proclaiming a Messiah had been born. The shepherds hurry to Bethlehem to find Mary, Joseph, and the baby. They are so changed by the encounter that they become unlikely messengers of the good news, glorifying and praising God to the amazement of their hearers.

From this account, we know that Mary and Joseph use a stable, “…because there was no guest room available for them,” (Luke 2:7). Nativity pageants traditionally include an unnamed innkeeper turning away Mary and Joseph before offering the stable as a makeshift shelter and delivery room. I wonder if it was not a single innkeeper, but rather several of Bethlehem’s citizens refusing Mary and Joseph a room that storied night. Can you imagine the feeling in their hearts as the shepherds share all they had seen and heard? Did they feel convicted that they had not made room for this divine arrival? Or did they continue living their lives, unchanged by the experience?

In the hymn, “Joy to the World,” the song lyrics describe a delighted welcoming of the Lord to the world, commanding every heart to “prepare him room,”:

Joy to the world! the Lord is come;
Let Earth receive her King;
Let ev'ry Heart prepare him room
And Heav'n and nature sing.

When English writer Isaac Watts penned these words in a book of poems in 1719, he was offering an interpretation of Psalm 98, painting a picture of heaven and earth singing enthusiastically over the arrival of a King who would rule the nations. Over a century after he wrote his poem, Watts’ words were adapted and set to music by Boston music teacher Lowell Mason, who released the song at Christmastime, making it an instant seasonal classic.

While we traditionally sing this song as a Christmas carol, its message encompasses more than the birth of Jesus. Later verses recount God’s plan to break the curse and consequences of sin, showing his righteousness, love, and grace. The opening stanza of Watts’ poem proclaims, “the Lord is come,” sharing his anticipation of Christ’s return. It’s the perfect song to sing in this season of Advent, both looking back at how God redeemed us through the birth of his son and forward to when he comes back and reunites us with him.

This Christmas season, I pray we would look forward to Jesus’s arrival with joyful anticipation, preparing room for him in our hearts and lives. May we, like the shepherds, forever be changed by encountering him, sharing the good news of the Savior with all around us.