How Was I to Know?

 

 

How was I to know

For I genuinely didn’t,

Unlike those excited shepherds

I really couldn’t.

 

There was no room

Well, except mine

And beside the animal stable

None could I find.

 

Mine wasn’t the first inn

That they had tried

So, I could not turn her away;

She was with child.

 

And heavily so

Just about to deliver,

Sorry to say, that animal shed

Was all I could give her

 

There she gave birth

Among the animals

To the Saviour of the world,

Not just Israel.

 

 

 

I offered the stable

That is all I could do,

Tell me, how was I to know?

Would you?

 

As I left them, I said,

God be with you

But this is the customary thing

That I would do.

 

I did not know then

What truth I spoke

And that the child she carried

Was the world’s hope.

 

The King of kings?

Born outside the palace?

What’s more, born in a stable?

The animals’ space?

 

How was I to know

Unless I was notified

That my specific inn was to house

The Christ child?

 

 

 

No room for Jesus

In any of the inns

But believe you me, had I known,

I’d have let in him.

 

Yes, there in my inn

The Saviour was born,

Not in any presidential room

But a stable forlorn.

 

I only came to know

After the fact

But had I known before hand,

It’d not be like that.

 

So, now that you know

Will you let him come in?

Is there any room in your heart

For him?

 

Stewart Russell © December 19, 2025