(From my Day By Day With Jesus, Dec. 24 devotion)
Grace Ditmanson Adams is a retired nurse who wrote an
interesting little work titled, “ASK Childhood Experience and Health.”
ASK stands for American School Kikungshan, which was one of the major
schools for foreign children in China and which was especially
well-attended by children of American Lutheran missionaries in central
China. The school operated between 1914 and 1951.
As a young girl Grace travelled with her parents in the late 1920s through inland China. She wrote about the crowded conditions in some of the places they stayed overnight. They were very unhealthy accommodations filled with people coughing, sneezing and smoking. Additionally, babies were crying and children complaining, so her family had to be content to put their bedrolls on the board beds in a large room with all the rest of the people.
One very snowy night they came to an inn that was full. The innkeeper expressed regret of having no room, but then said, “Please, follow me.” He led them to a side room used to store straw and farm equipment, and there they slept peacefully in a quiet place of their own.
Nurse Adams later wrote that whenever she read about Mary bringing forth her firstborn son and wrapping Him in clothes and placing Him in a manger because there was no room in the inn, she saw the experience quite differently. The innkeeper was not uncaring, and having a place in the inn would have been a much poorer accommodation, especially if Mary had given birth there. The privacy they had in the stable was surely far better than the crowded inn would have been.
Inns at that time were often segregated, one for men and one for women. Knowing of her coming delivery, Joseph could not have allowed Mary to stay in such a place. Even though it was among animals, God provided for them a far better place. We, too, would do well to see how He provides for us in better ways than we might think.
As a young girl Grace travelled with her parents in the late 1920s through inland China. She wrote about the crowded conditions in some of the places they stayed overnight. They were very unhealthy accommodations filled with people coughing, sneezing and smoking. Additionally, babies were crying and children complaining, so her family had to be content to put their bedrolls on the board beds in a large room with all the rest of the people.
One very snowy night they came to an inn that was full. The innkeeper expressed regret of having no room, but then said, “Please, follow me.” He led them to a side room used to store straw and farm equipment, and there they slept peacefully in a quiet place of their own.
Nurse Adams later wrote that whenever she read about Mary bringing forth her firstborn son and wrapping Him in clothes and placing Him in a manger because there was no room in the inn, she saw the experience quite differently. The innkeeper was not uncaring, and having a place in the inn would have been a much poorer accommodation, especially if Mary had given birth there. The privacy they had in the stable was surely far better than the crowded inn would have been.
Inns at that time were often segregated, one for men and one for women. Knowing of her coming delivery, Joseph could not have allowed Mary to stay in such a place. Even though it was among animals, God provided for them a far better place. We, too, would do well to see how He provides for us in better ways than we might think.
“She laid him in a manger, because the inn was full.” (Luke 2:7)
A very merry and blessed Christmas to you all,
Rev. Bob Tasler, www.bobtasler.com
A very merry and blessed Christmas to you all,
Rev. Bob Tasler, www.bobtasler.com
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