The bright pink tractor was spinning around and around, and smoke and steam surrounded it. Hay and straw came out of the smokestack! When the smoke and steam cleared away, M&M and Gummy Bear saw that they were on a dusty dirt road out in the country. Many people were walking along this road, headed toward a town off in the distance. Right beside the bright pink tractor there was a man and a young woman walking very slowly. The reason that they were walking slowly was because the young woman was going to have a baby very soon. Her tummy was very big!
M&M said, “Hey, I know that young woman, it is Mary from our last story, it looks like the angels promise of a baby is going to come true very soon.” Just then Mary said, “Joseph, this is the worst time to be taking a long trip of a hundred miles, I do not know if I can go much further.” Joseph replied, “I know Mary, but the government says that all of us must go back to the hometown of our ancestors, so that they can count all of the people by families. We are almost there; Bethlehem is the next town. Bethlehem is where our family is from, our ancestor King David was born in Bethlehem.”
Gummy Bear said, “I wish we could help them, why couldn’t we give them a ride on the bright pink tractor?” M&M told him, “You know that only God and angels can see us or the bright pink tractor. Mary and Joseph do not even know that we are here.” Gummy Bear said, “But why couldn’t we just pick Mary up and put her on the bright pink tractor, she is so tired!” M&M replied, “Think about how that would look, suddenly Mary would fly up off the ground and land on a bright pink tractor that is invisible. It would look like Mary was floating in the air! Mary would probably be so scared that she would have the baby right here, and that would be a disaster!” Gummy Bear said, “But we have to do something, what can we do?” M&M replied, “Let’s go ahead of them into Bethlehem and see if we can find a good hotel for them, maybe we can help that way!”
So Gummy Bear and M&M went speeding away on the bright pink tractor to Bethlehem. When they got to Bethlehem, they were very surprised! There were no hotels anywhere! Gummy Bear said, “Where are the Holiday Inn, or the Best Western Hotel, or the Days Inn, or the Super 8 Motel, or even the Motel 6?” It was true, there were no hotels or motels in Bethlehem because they had not been invented yet. Travelers could either stay in the home of one of their relatives or stay in a big empty building that they called an Inn. M&M looked into the Inn and did not like what he saw. The Inn was filled with people! There were so many travelers in Bethlehem that every inch of space in the Inn was filled with people on their sleeping mats. There was not room for another person to fit into that building!
Just then Joseph and Mary came walking very, very slowly up to the Inn. Mary was crying and telling Joseph, “Get me inside quick! I think the Baby is going to be born tonight!” Joseph looked inside the Inn and saw that there was no room! He did not know what to do! He said, “Mary, there is no room in the Inn, and I do not know anyone in town that we can stay with, everyone’s house is already filled with visitors.” Mary again said, “Joseph! I need to get inside right now; this baby is going to be born!”
Joseph looked around and noticed a stable behind the Inn. He said, “Lets go and see if maybe there is room in the stable, at least you will be inside a building.”
Gummy Bear and M&M jumped on the bright pink tractor and went speeding to the stable behind the Inn. When they got there, they saw that there was room in the stable, but it was not a very good place for a baby to be born, there was nothing soft and warm for a baby to sleep in. Just then more hay and straw came flying out of the smokestack of the bright pink tractor. M&M said, “Hay and straw would make a warm bed for a baby!” Gummy Bear and M&M quickly began picking up armfuls of the hay and straw and piling them inside the stable.
When all the hay and straw was piled inside the stable, M&M and Gummy Bear saw Joseph carrying Mary into the stable. Joseph gently laid Mary down on the pile of hay and straw, then he carried over a feed trough, called a manger, and put it beside Mary and filled it with hay and straw too. The manger would be the bed for the baby that would be born that night.
Gummy Bear and M&M climbed up on the bright pink tractor and sat down to rest. Suddenly, the bright pink tractor started up on its own and began to go down the street that went out of town……
What Gummy Bear, M&M and you can learn from this story:
The story of Jesus being born in the stable in Bethlehem is found in the Bible in Luke 2:1-7.
Imagine that your life is like a house with many rooms. You have many things in your house that fill the rooms. Some of the things in your house are family, friends, time to rest and sleep, school, homework, video games, tv, social media, and talking on the phone.
Your life ‘house’ can seem very full most of the time, just like that Inn in Bethlehem was full. Many times, we criticize the people of Bethlehem because they did not find room for Jesus to be born, except in a stable, but how many times do we have our life so full that there is no room for Jesus in our life?
In the Bible in Revelation 3:20 Jesus says:
“Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.”
Jesus wants to be a part of your life every day! You need to make room in your life for Him, and ‘open the door’ and let Him come in every day! Then you will experience a close friendship with Jesus. It is a friendship better than any other friendship!
Try it today!