Making Room: How Can We Bring Christ into the World

by Lori Wilson

As Advent begins, our hearts turn to Mary and Joseph - to their costly yes.

When the angel Gabriel came to Mary, she didn't understand. "How can this be?" she asked (Luke 1:34). She was being invited to risk everything - her reputation, her safety, her certainty about what life would be. Her parents' dreams for her. Joseph's trust. The simple future she'd imagined. And yet she said yes: "I am the Lord's servant. May your word to me be fulfilled" (Luke 1:38).

Joseph had his own clearing away to do. When he learned Mary was pregnant, he planned to divorce her quietly - the most merciful option available to him. But then came the dream: "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife" (Matthew 1:20). He woke and did what the angel commanded (Matthew 1:24). He cleared away his expectations of a normal life, a respectable reputation. The gossip would follow them. The looks. The judgments. Both their yeses were costly.

Mary and Joseph made room in their lives - physically, emotionally, spiritually - to birth Christ into the world.

This is our invitation too.

We're all being called to birth Christ-qualities into our world today. Not the Christ of 2000 years ago, but Christ alive now, in 2025, through us. What wants to be born through you? Maybe it's compassion - the ability to see with Christ's eyes. Maybe it's courage to speak truth, or the capacity to truly rest. Maybe it's mercy, holy boundaries, fierce joy. Maybe it's learning to pause between stimulus and response, releasing judgment, letting go of the illusion of control.

Something is stirring in you. Something wants more room.

But like Mary and Joseph, making room means clearing away. The need to be right. Rushing and busyness. Old expectations of how things "should" be. The certainty we cling to.

We're all pregnant with possibility. Advent is our nine months compressed - time to tend what's growing, to make room, to say yes even when we don't fully understand.

Reflection Questions

Sit with these questions this week. Journal about them. Bring them to your prayer.

• What quality of Christ is stirring in you right now? Where have you noticed it trying to emerge?

• What might you need to clear away - even temporarily - to make room for this to grow?

• What would one practice be during Advent to tend what's gestating in you? (A pause before responding? Morning silence? Releasing one commitment? Noticing without acting on judgment?)

• What does your yes cost you? What certainty or expectation are you being invited to release?

A Prayer for Making Room

God of new beginnings, You are always trying to birth something new in us. Help us notice what is stirring. Give us the courage to clear away what needs to go. Teach us to wait, to tend, to make room. May we say yes to what You are gestating in us, even when we cannot yet see where it will lead. Like Mary, may we trust: Let it be done according to Your word. Amen.