Well, It's Not Exactly the Hilton

Fourth

After an exhausting week’s long journey over very difficult terrain Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem in the middle of the day.  Dusty and tired Joseph set out to secure lodgings leaving Mary to rest by the town's well. He knew that he’d have to pay to stay in the town's inn because  all of his family had left Bethlehem many years ago. He didn’t know a soul in the town.  As Joseph went to the inn he was hoping to rent a little room  that didn’t cost too much. He had to conserve his money so that he could pay those heavy Roman taxes. In previous years he'd experienced greedy tax collectors adding a stiff surcharge on whatever the Romans levied for taxes.  Joseph went ready to bargain hard with the Inn Keeper for a reasonable rate.

When he arrived the bedraggled keeper looked at him and shook his head. “Sorry, I’m filled up to the gills,” said the man.  “Every single space is taken,” he said.  "I even have people sleeping in the dining spaces,” he added.  As if to emphasize his point he continued,”  I even have one man sleeping in a corner in a hallway.”  “I just can’t take another person,” he added.  “My own five children are sleeping in one tiny room,” he continued.  “I don’t know what that Caesar Augustus was thinking when he ordered people to go back to their birthplaces, he whispered, less some one report him to the Romans for complaining. “What am I going to do,” asked  Joseph plaintively?  “My wife is  expecting our first child.”  “Do you know any homes  around here that are taking in people.”  “No,” said the innkeeper. “Everyone I know around here is filled to overflowing with family and strangers," he answered. There’s just no room in this town for anyone else. Joseph looked down scratching his head.

"Well I hate to suggest this," said the innkeeper sympathetically, "Seeing that your wife is expecting and all, but the only place I can offer is space in the stable."  "That’s the only space where a person can even sit down, " he said sounding embarrassed to even suggest such a wretched place.  "At least it will be out of the cool night air," he continued. "That’s all I have to offer," he said. "If you don''t take that I'm pretty sure that it will be snatched up if anyone else comes to town looking for a spot," said the harried innkeeper. 

Knowing he was in a predicament,  Joseph agreed on a meager price for the smelly stable. A disappointed Joseph went back to get his weary wife. "Mary, I have some bad news," he told her dejectedly.  He explained to her that there was absolutely no where decent to stay in the town. "Every room in the inn and every house is filled with people like us who had to come back to be taxed," said Joseph.  "Well it's a space and at this point we just have to do what we need to do," she said as she stood up. "Maybe something else will open up in a few days, said a hopeful Mary."  

Luke 2:7

And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

Lesson: Doing the right thing  and being in the will of God doesn't mean everything will be comfortable all of the time.  Sometimes you just have to endure discomfort to get to your goal.