Making room – a Christmas reflection
Lisa Peart, mission partner in Bolivia, writes about the power of making room
Writing from Santa Cruz, Bolivia, where she and her family have been CMS mission partners for the last eight years, Lisa Peart reflects on making room for each other and for Jesus.
As we lead up to Christmas, I’ve been reflecting on the story of a particular part of Jesus’ birth as written in Luke 2:6–7:
While they were there the time came for the baby to be born and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.
This year, good friends of ours in England have made room for our daughter, Liliana, to live with them while she takes a gap year and applies to universities in the UK, allowing us to return to Bolivia knowing she’s safe and in caring hands.
She has a lovely room, which is much more than physical shelter – they’ve made room, welcoming her into their family of four, providing a safe space for her to settle into a country that she’s not lived in for the last eight years.
They’ve made room at their kitchen table for family fellowship, nourishment and a home to return to on uni breaks. We are so grateful.
In 2019/20 we made room for Daniela to live in our home for one year after she reached the age of adulthood and was no longer allowed to live in the orphanage she grew up in. This was both wonderful and challenging for us as a family.
Five years on, she’s finished high school, has a job and a place of her own, yet knows that there is always room for her in our home, at our table and in our lives. We look forward to spending Christmas together again this year.
The Bible study in the toilets
Jenny and Richard, our microfinance partners who we walk alongside, investing in their lives and their public toilet business, make room for people in their neighbourhood to sit at their table and study God’s Word weekly, offering them a safe place to be heard and share life together.
They also make room for 70 people living on the edges of society to receive both physical and spiritual nourishment once a month in this same space. It’s not just on these days that they make room, it is pretty much a daily thing!
Pray for those who come to know that Jesus makes room for them in his house, too.
This summer while in the UK, we were nourished by a host of gracious strangers, wonderful friends and treasured family who all made room in their churches, lives and homes for us to eat, sleep, and share stories well into the night – we are no longer strangers, but friends.
A highlight was a Taste of Bolivia evening in our sending church in Hartley Wintney.
Making room is the heart of biblical hospitality. It requires sacrifice, rooting out our self-centredness, draws us into the light of authentic community. We as a family continue to learn from those we walk alongside, being both guest and host in our context.
I’m fascinated that there was no room at the inn for the birth of our King Jesus, yet he is the one who makes room for us and others at his table and asks us to do the same.
I recommend Christine Pohl’s book Making Room – it unpacks this theme beautifully!
Pray together
Lisa says: “We’d love you to pray that our long-anticipated community garden project is less project and more making room and space to practise hospitality.
“We have faced rising costs and other challenges in getting this going. Continue to pray that we would trust the Lord is working these challenges for his good purpose! We look forward to sharing an update on the project soon.”
