“The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him.”

Psalms 24:1 NLT

It is wonderful to be back from my sabbatical and engaging with you amazing readers again just in time for the holidays. In this article, I reflect and reframe the idea that the “no room in the inn” experienced by Mary, the Mother of Jesus and Joseph, Jesus’s stepfather, was actually a redirection to a blessing in an unfathomable place.

I always found it curious as a child when hearing the story of Jesus’s birth about how anyone had the power to reject the Son of God. Excuse me? It is Jesus, the Savior of the World. How can anyone hold more power than the Savior of the World? Could socioeconomic status hold more power than The Great I Am? It never set right with my spirit. And, as I learned more about the sociopolitical factors in Bethlehem during that time, I began to understand just how appropriate (and miraculous) the setting of Jesus’s birth truly was.

We live in a world that needs us to acquiesce to the idea that there is never enough of anything: food, time, money, hair, faith, hope, love, etc. In Bethlehem, there was no room for a family expecting a child, just as there was no room for any other king beyond King Herod.

Historically, society via the dominant cultures has intentionally deceived us into its belief that its limitations are divinely sanctioned, thus making their limitations, our limitations. However, as Bishop T.D. Jakes said during the sermon Stop Living in Limbo, “There’s a difference between facts and the truth.” 

For all the animals of the forest are mine, and I own the cattle on a thousand hills.

Psalms 50:10 (NLT), God’s Truth vs. the world’s facts

Mary and Joseph being turned away during a time of religious and political reckoning mirrors our current realities:

• Our Sisters and Brothers seeking refuge from other countries are being flown unannounced and without requisite information to support themselves and their families in an attempt to prove that there is “no room” in one of the richest nations on the planet.
• “Religious” Right-Wing Conservatives being up-in-arms about women preachers in the pulpit, because there is “no room” for the Divine Feminine at the Sacred Desk.
• White Christian Nationalists working to sanitize history for fear of the “Great Replacement Theory,” insinuating there is not enough room for them to coexist on this vast planet with Black, Indigenous and other People of Color.    

Reframing: Could it have been that Mary and Joseph being turned away from a confined structure and required to give birth to the King of Kings in a manger, was an intentional act to say that no man-made structure was large enough to house the Savior of the world? Was that perceived setback actually a movement that exemplified the truest statement of all: He who came to bless the people will never be confined by them?

Thankfully, The Lover of Justice and our Souls has not co-signed with our feeble attempts to limit when, where and how blessings flow. The power of God can be felt in the White House and in a crack house. Glory can spread in a superdome arena and in a supermarket. Justice and Joy can exist in a home on the hill or a makeshift home under a freeway underpass.

During this holiday season, while it may be socially convenient to ingest all of the limitations that are being carefully crafted and packaged to us, challenge yourself to Freedom Dream again.  Challenge yourself to imagine and actualize love and liberation in your internal and external world. And, imagine a King that was turned away from the structural confinements of the powers that be, only to be birthed surrounded by the “expanse of the earth (Job 38:18)” into the great Power That Is and shall forever be.

Hey Siri, please play “Who Would Imagine A King” on repeat.

May you and your loved ones create moments that matter, while reframing the idea that there is “no room” for you. Be reminded that with God, there will always be room and blessings enough for you. And God will remind you of such in some of the most unorthodox places and in the most unimaginable times.

By Dr. Kecia Brown

Dr. Kecia Brown is an author, educator and entrepreneur. Kecia’s first children’s book, The Love of 10,000 is a heartfelt visual poem about the love between a mother and her child, as well as the enduring love of our benevolent Ancestors towards us. The book was inspired by the poem Our Grandmothers, written by Kecia’s self-appointed patron saint, the incomparable Dr. Maya Angelou. Kecia believes her gift to the world is to create experiences that help us to heal, laugh and live our poetry/liberation out loud.