We know nothing, really, of the innkeeper who gave a place with the animals to Joseph and Mary. It’s been pointed out that there may not have even been an inn, nor a keeper… just extended family members who put up the holy family with the animals in the common room where the animals were housed at night.
Either way.
I sometimes read John Piper’s Advent poems during the Advent season, and have appreciated several of them… but there is one that I seek out each year, “The Innkeeper” (MP3), which offers Piper’s artistic license and imagination applied to speculate about how the rest of the innkeeper’s story may have turned out after the eventful night in the stable was finished and past.
I’ll try to locate a copy of the sermon, but Brad Bergfalk (nakedreligion.com) did a short (12 minute) monologue as the innkeeper. It was very insightful and well thought out, but it really puts a new (and interesting) angle on the story of the birth of Jesus.
It’s Christmas Eve and I’m spending a little time dropping in on the blogs I regularly read. I wish you a very merry Christmas and I look forward to reading your blog in 2006.