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
