The stories around the event of Christmas fascinate me for a long time. Every year I seem to discover more miracles that took place in this awesome time during our saviors birth. The Christmas story is actually the most popular story of all and even people who don't believe in God, know quite well what happened. Every child knows it...and yet...do we really know it?
I read through Matthew 1 and you can easily get bored reading through the genealogy. ...all these names that I can hardly pronounce....it's a hassle to read through them one by one, right? Then it dawned on me that there is a high importance on this family tree, otherwise it wouldn't have been written...Abraham was the father of Isaac...yes the father of faith: Abraham! What a man of God, of course he is mentioned here. But when we look deeper into his life don't we see behind the tremendous strength also the tremendous weakness. Wasn't he the one who out of terrible fear of men gave his wife to a foreign king for him to sleep with her? What kind of a husband is that? And...he did it twice when I remember right! Wow! After that I guess they had some marriage problems to work on, don't you think? But God had a plan with them and in we know the story how Sarah became pregnant with Isaac (after Abraham slept with their maid and had a baby with her). Isaac became the father of Jacob, a cheater and liar...yet chosen by God. Jacob, father of Judah (remember Jesus is the LION OF JUDAH!) and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar. We can read her special story in Genesis 38. A woman who sneaked her way into the family tree through sleeping with her father in law....I skip a few names and come down to Rahab.(Joshua 2:1, 6:17; Hebrews 11:31; James 2:25). Remember Rahab. She was a prostitute in Jericho during the time of Joshua. We read over her life in a few seconds and are not aware how messed up she really was. Rahab was caught up in terrible occultism and slept with whoever came along. If we would meet her today, we would barely have hope for her to change her life into decency. Yet she was desperate and in search of the living God. She was fed up with her life. She was broken! We know the story how she helped Joshua's spies and got spared from the destruction as a reward.. She joined the people of God as a foreigner and believed in HIM! A foreigner! God honored her so much that he put her in the family tree of his son and her name is mentioned even with the other heroes of faith in Hebrews 11. Then we come to Boaz, who became the redeemer of Ruth...another foreigner lady! Then we read Davids name...yes David! We all know about his glories and downfalls! An adulterer and murderer, yet a great worshiper and man after God's own heart. A couple of generations later we read JOSEPH, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, our Lord (Matthew 1:16). Mary and Joseph, two nameless and faceless, simple teenagers. Why them? Sometimes I thing God has a special thing for the unimportant. The insignificant, the nobodies! They became the earthly parents of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And HE is NOT ASHAMED to mention his family tree with all the stories, with all the glory and the shame in his word. The line goes forth...Today you and me are adopted in this wonderful family tree when we receive HIM as our Lord and Savior. What a privilege and honor! We are in good company with our ancestors and Jesus himself redeemed us from darkness and shame to a life of dignity and purpose! This is Christmas!
Thomas Erkens
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