Merry Christmas!

I hope this day is extra special for you because it is definitely a special day.  It is not just any holiday.  It celebrates God coming to us as one of us to offer His salvation to all of us.

Christmas was not an accident.  It was planned.  Just take a look at Matthew 1.

Matthew shared the genealogy of Jesus to show how He fulfilled many prophecies given hundreds of years before.  But it also shows us how faithful God is to His promises throughout the ages (and especially to Abraham and David).

Matthew also shared the names of several women (at a time when women were not give much focus) – Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary – who would not have been considered worthy of such a descendant.  Tamar tricked her father-in-law to have his son, Rahab had been a prostitute, Bathsheba had a terrible past with King David, Ruth was a foreigner from a cruel people, and Mary was a nobody by societal standards.  And God worked through each of those flawed people to bring hope to the world.  God chose to redeem what many would consider worthless.

And He still does.

God gave you a long list of ancestors who helped shape you.  None of them were perfect, and some of them may have seemed far from perfect.  However, God used them to bring you to where you are.  He wants to use that to help make you the most incredible person you can imagine.

Peace, love, and joy are what we think of at Christmas.  Yet I hope you will also think about hope, forgiveness, and redemption this year.  God continues to uphold His promises.  God continues to move in our lives.

So Merry Christmas!

Consider digging further into this by reading Russ Bradley’s book on who God creates us to be. Click the picture below to get yours…