A Room Where There’s No Room—Seeing God In Plan B

We all have hopes, dreams, and plans.

Even when I was in 8^th grade, I was making plans for my future—which included driving a Pontiac Fiero and living on a sailboat (OK, I admit it: I was a big fan of Miami Vice and I wanted to be Sonny Crockett).

When you think about the birth of Jesus in terms of God’s plans, the story is incredible. God becomes man, with the purpose of going to the cross and redeeming humanity. The penalty for our sins is paid in full.

Like the Hark the Herald Angels song says, “Peace on earth, and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled.” This plan of God’s is fantastic. The best.

But from the Mary and Joseph point-of-view, everything about the Bethlehem story seems inconvenient, less than desirable, and outside their best laid plans…

• Their engagement is interrupted by a positive E.P.T. and Joseph isn’t the father.
• An angel visits Joseph and says (I’m paraphrasing), “You have no choice in the matter. You will marry her.”
• In the final trimester of her pregnancy, Mary has to travel by donkey to Bethlehem for a census.
• Tom Bodett didn’t leave the light on at his Bethlehem Motel 6. There’s no room at the inn.
• The baby is coming and they are staying in a barn for the night.
• Mary’s child is born in the company of farm animals.

God’s plan? Yes.

His master plan actually.

Mary and Joseph’s plan? Not exactly.

And yet, in all of the inconvenience and uncomfortableness of Mary and Joseph’s Plan B, there was hope. There was life. And there was God—his presence and his work.

Mary and Joseph found a room where there was no room. It was a miracle—maybe a little one, but it was just what they needed at that moment.

I believe you also will find a room where there’s no room.

Hope in the midst of your Plan B.

Life in the midst of your Plan B.

God, right there—his presence and his work, in the midst of your Plan B.