Sister Poetry

I wasn’t picking on anyone, I wasn’t purposely excluding anyone.
Except for the rich who could send runners ahead to reserve a spot, literally,
it was first-come, first-served.

Remember – no phone, fax or email. 
We are not talking Holiday Inn or Marriott, Hilton or Best Western. 
Adobe dwelling with a platform bed and perhaps a window. 
No dining room, laundry or indoor plumbing. 
Literally, only a place to lay your head.

So when the young man and obviously ready-to-give-birth woman showed up
I did not what any father would want someone to do for his daughter and son-in-law.
I found them warmth and privacy.
I offered them my stable and my wife as midwife.

They were surprised; because the families they passed leaving Bethlehem as they entered
all told them “there was no room in the inn.”
Joseph and Mary gave thanks and settled into the hay and straw-strewn abode – waiting.