Dear Innkeeper,

You didn’t even get a name. In the Bible, that is. Actually, you aren’t even identified as innkeeper. There is only your implied presence at the doorway that night in Bethlehem. Still, in churches all over the world, someone always takes up your cause, dresses the part and delivers the single crucial line: There is no room at the inn. No respectable nativity pageant would be worth its salt (or myrrh, if you prefer) without an innkeeper. A bit part, but a necessary part nonetheless.

Actually, I’m a big fan of bit parts. Consider the world without those of us who play bit parts for most–if not all–of our lives. Behind every leading role–say a cancer researcher or a legislator or a New York Times best selling author or a Savior–there has always been the implied presence of some nameless individual: a parent, a friend, a teacher, a mentor. These are bit part people at their truest and finest, those who inauspiciously go about the necessary work of guiding, redirecting, encouraging, criticizing, and loving, always loving.

Oh, I know what you’re thinking: But I wasn’t a supporter or mentor or friend. I just opened the door and told a desperate young couple that there was no room for the night. Then–and this is the really sad part–I offered them  shelter in a stable. A stable! For a woman about to give birth, I gestured toward a stable and closed the door. 

But this was your part, you see.  God sent his Son into the world as a baby to be born in the lowliest of places. The baby and lowly parts were absolutely crucial, for this birth was going to turn the world on its head, ushering in a kingdom with a king no one expected: the King of Kings born to common parents, a Son who would grow and live in an ordinary home, a Savior who would live, love, and suffer among ordinary people. God with us, God within us, and God through us. And you were there at the very beginning to play the part you were destined to play.

So when the curtain call comes, take your bow. Your fellow bit players are waiting in the shadows to give you a quiet and long overdue ovation.

From one bit player to another,

Shannon