Making Room in Our Lives for Him

One of the lovely things left to me by my mother and father is a beautifully carved, wooden nativity. My family did quite a bit of traveling while I was growing up, and everywhere we went, my parents kept their eyes open for just the right pieces to add to the manger scene. Dad even found a branch of dried wood which he crafted into a gnarled tree for the shepherds to rest beside. The figures are small, but each piece is so delicately sculpted that you can read the expression on their faces.

The real heart of this nativity for me, however, is the stable itself. I remember as a child sitting in the carport watching my father build it, carefully fitting the crossbeams into place, chiseling the roofline, and sanding the base. It was truly a labor of love, and over time, it has come to represent something important and meaningful about the kind of person Dad was. Just as he physically made a place for that tiny wooden Baby, he always made room for the Savior in his own life.

My father was a man of many talents, a renaissance man. He loved music, art, literature, science, history, theater, opera, politics, gardening, traveling, architecture, and so much more. And he didn’t just want to know about them; he wanted to experience them. He had the voice of an angel. He wrote. He acted. He played the violin, the viola, the recorder, the guitar and the mandolin. He grew fruits and vegetables, beautiful flower gardens, and tiny bonsai. He traveled extensively and spoke French well, German a little, and even a bit of Farsi. He sketched. He served on community and university boards and committees. He had little patience when we, his children, complained of being bored. How could we be bored when there was always so much to see and do and learn?

All these “loves” could easily have consumed all of Dad’s time and energy, but at the heart of everything he did was my father’s love for his Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. He showed that love by serving freely in any church assignment he was given as well as by taking every opportunity to bless the lives of his family, friends, and neighbors on his own. He truly made “room in the inn” for the Savior every day of his life.

-Marilyn

Who tries not to be bored. . 

.  .

You might enjoy this true story about a kind Frenchman who made room in his inn on Christmas Eve.