The InnKeeper

This story is set in Bethlehem, 2002 years ago. It is about the lives of seven people who are in the city the day Christ was born. The story ends by giving a plausible reason why there was no room in the Inn. The reason should hit most of us hard.

A young boy, Caleb, the son of the InnKeeper, is expelled from the rabbinical seminary for his sensitivity after the death of his best friend's brother. He's angry with God for allowing the death and tells him so.

A Roman soldier's wife and family are saved from death's door after his integrity is tested over time.

Leah, Caleb's fiancé, unwittingly strips herself of the outward signs of her virginity and purity and finds herself helping Mary give birth to a baby in her stall.

Caleb is asked to recite a prayer over the newborn. Reluctantly, he does so, giving away the prayer he was saving for his own son, as a bright star finds its way to the Inn.

The InnKeeper tells his wife why he let an empty room remain empty while a baby lay in a manger outside.

An old man looks on, missing nothing.