15 December – No room with the relatives

We all know that there was ‘no room at the inn’ in Bethlehem, but have you ever wondered why Mary and Joseph had to try the inn in the first place, when this was Joseph’s home town?

You’d think that Joseph’s family would have made space for a heavily pregnant daughter in law, wouldn’t you? Perhaps some of the rumours about Mary had come down from Nazareth ahead of her – perhaps Joseph’s family suspected that the child was not Joseph’s, and weren’t willing to take in ‘That Mary’. We don’t know, but it seems possible, doesn’t it?

Is there anyone in your family who you’re keeping at a distance because of something they’ve done or have been said to have done? Why not reach out to them this Christmas?

The animations in this series are by Jon Birch, and used by permission, but please don’t download them or post them elsewhere, as the copyright doesn’t allow that. Find out more at http://proost.co.uk/altadvent.