Every story has a main character. Other characters help move the story along. The story of the birth of Jesus is no different.
Mary and Joseph are important, but not the main characters. They travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem to be counted in the world's first census. Only, when they arrive in Bethlehem, it is crowded. Joseph and Mary are both tired. Mary is pregnant. There was no Holiday Inn, Ramada Inn, Marriott, and definitely no light on at Motel 6. In desperate need to find someplace for Mary, Joseph continued tiredly plodding from one place to another unsuccessfully. The last place he stopped again had no room for the weary travelers.
This is where our main character enters. It is the innkeeper's wife. She was close by when Joseph talked to the innkeeper. She saw Mary. She heard Joseph's exhausted, pleading words. She knew as much about the inn as her husband, if not more. Her motherly instincts were awakened and flooded her mind with ideas. Edging close to her husband, her excitement certainly became apparent to him. Her thoughts reached his tired but kind and hospitable heart. Encouraged by his wife, he said, "I have a place."
Leaving her husband to do his job, the innkeeper's wife smiled and hurried to do hers: get the stable ready for the baby.
She is not named and may never be remembered, except in this book. But because of her kindness, we have all smiled when remembering the birth of Jesus.