"Welcome to the stable."That was the phrase in my mind as I woke this morning, spoken by a Voice I've come to recognize over the years. There is a timbre to that Voice that sets a spheric harmonic of space and time and meaning resonating in my being. I don't know how there can be such joy and such solemnity and such longing and so much peace in a Voice all at the same time, but I always hear those things in about equal measures when He speaks. And my soul rises to answer, to mine the meaning of the precious words He offers.
The stable He's welcomed me into today smells sourly of old sorrows and the sleepless hours of suffering and ripely of rejection and bitterly of the sweat of human travail and ancient agonies. There are earthy notes of animal waste and bedding, of decay from wood too long exposed to elements and riddled now with mold, of old sunbaked bricks crumbling into dust. And He is neither embarrassed nor offended by any of it; He accepts it as the place to which His Father has called Him. Grace and truth can make a welcoming home in any humble place.
I don't mind stables; I never have, except one I remember from my childhood in which pigs had been kept years earlier in the lower section. That odor, from swine dead for decades, was still pungent enough to make me realize what the Prodigal must have smelled like coming home at last to his father's waiting arms. If my Gentile sensitivities could be offended at the thought, what of that of a Jew trained to keep careful distance from such things? I've always liked that about Jesus: His unashamed earthiness, His solid determination to stay firmly attached to the images and odors of this world as He offers us each salvation and hope and grace right there in the middle of the mess of life.
My favorite of Lewis' Narnian chronicles is The Last Battle.The very first place encountered by those called out of the life of Narnia into an everlasting one is a Stable. One of Lewis' young heroes says of that Stable -- which can only be entered through the doorway of death -- that "the Stable seen from within and the Stable seen from without are two very different places." And Queen Lucy, now perfected and glorified having passed through death's door, replies, "In our world, too, a Stable once had something inside it that was bigger than our whole world."
There are always two Stables coexisting in space and time, it seems to me: one of earth meant to lodge the meanest animals, the unclean and those unwelcome elsewhere; a second that is made of those same molecules set spinning at a higher, holier frequency. This is the place where heaven's harmonics intersect earth's by that physics of their particles which I do not pretend to understand, where waves of Grace and Truth wash through the simple stalls, cleansing all and rendering it holy, creating an honorable and expansive space where there was none before and offering us a welcome we almost hesitate to claim.
Inside the second Stable is a holy equity established by our universal need of Him and by the welcome He offers each equally. Those who like the Stable best are often those -- like Him and His family -- who have great need and nowhere else to go. If your companions are usually -- or if you are now among -- the hurting, the grieving, those in travail or trouble, those whose hearts ache with pain that tempts despair, those weary beyond weariness, those without hope of welcome elsewhere, you'll feel right at home in the Stable. You'll find a spot somewhere to sit and lean against a crumbling wall, simply glad to have a place to go, the warmth of a company of equals, and a companionship with One who accepts life as His Father sends it to Him.
If you're offended in the very idea of His choice of domicile and in the company He keeps, that's OK. The blessing of not being offended in Him is still a possibility for your future; He will be there with His welcome at your point of greatest need. Beggars are not choosers, the proverb says. Unlike the rest of the world, He reserves His most lavish welcome for beggars. He keeps the door to the Stable ajar.
The Magus-Kings who came to the Stable found answers to their search for mystery and meaning; the Shepherds who came found proof of angelic prophecies; the little Family found shelter and provision, if also rejection and trying circumstances. I keep wondering what I will find this year as I accept, once again, His welcome into that Stable that was briefly His first home.
May you find His deep, rich Stable-blessing and a welcome for your heart in His limitless love and absolute acceptance.
After 30+ years in public ministry as missionary, pastoral counselor, homeschooling mentor, writer and editor, Georgia Ana Larson now focuses on an internet-based ministry and business founded in grace and expressed through mentoring others who have a similar desire to work from home, nurture a family, build a business and stay faithful to a deep interior Call to have a life of devotion expressed in service, no matter what context. You can read more of her articles at her home site: aBrighterCandle.com aBrighterCandle.com