Saturday Dec. 7
Scripture: Matthew 1:1-17
Before you start complaining about your dysfunctional family this Christmas, remember Jesus’ family was just as bad, if not worse than yours. According to the first chapter of Matthew, Jesus’ family tree contains a prostitute (Rahab), an admitted adulterer and murderer (David), a destitute foreign migrant (Ruth), and that’s just scratching the surface.
Why would Jesus before be born into a family like this? Why not just descend straight from heaven undefiled by this messed up family system? What could we possibly learn from Jesus’ birth into such a problematic family?
The answer is simple: Jesus meets us in our mess. In fact, until we learn to see Jesus in the middle of our mess we may not be able to see him anywhere else.
Often we are guilty of thinking Jesus is only interested in our good side. So we shy away from him we aren’t doing so good and life isn’t going so well. When we pray we pretend to be more pure than we are and so we never actually invite Jesus to heal our deepest wounds and calm our greatest fears.
There’s only one type of person in the world Jesus can’t help – the person you pretend to be. And there’s only one type of person in this world Jesus can save – the person you actually are.
This Christmas, invite Jesus into your mess and be prepared for Him to invite you into His family.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for coming from heaven to earth not to condemn me for the mess I have made of my life, but rather to meet me in my mess. Allow me to come to you just as I am that I might come to know you just as you are and have my life transformed by our encounter. Amen.