My painting “The Innkeeper “— created to accompany Alana Levandoski‘s soulful, haunting song by the same name — is taking center stage in my portfolio right now.
It started gaining attention on November 7 after Richard Rohr’s daily meditation ended with a link to Alana’s video-divina “The Christ Hymn.” I woke that morning to a number of inquiries about my paintings in the Behold collection, orders for the Behold note cards, and —
One special request to use “The Innkeeper” as a family Christmas card.
Followed by —
Another.
And another.
With each request, I offered to customize the front cover with a message that had special meaning for the senders. One of the responses I received came in the form of two questions.
“Is there room for me?”
“Is there room for us?”
My heart leaped.
And tears welled up from a place inside me — inside all of us — that knows how it feels to be on the outside and to risk asking to be included.
Listen to the lyrics of Alana’s song, “The Innkeeper” —
“I saw the silence of the poor, I saw what they were after, we all do—
We all do.”
You will know in a way that you cannot explain that the knock at the door is the Christ wanting to be born in you. Imagine a world where all of us are able to see that when God brings the stranger to our home, he is bringing himself as LOVE to us.
Now, imagine not waiting to be asked to “make room.”
We are not ever sharing what is ours, but what is his.
Let us be a world of people making room for everyone, always.
With my special thanks to St. Joan of Arc Catholic Community in Minneapolis, Minnesota for the questions that grace the front of “The Innkeeper Christmas Card.”
JULIE ANN STEVENS 