Merry Christmas!

Mary was about 15 years old when she discovered she would be carrying the baby Jesus.  She was unmarried.  Her fiance was an older man, as was custom back in those days.  It was simply scandalous to marry someone who wasn't a virgin.  So there was Joseph, one day finding himself engaged to a pregnant girl he had never slept with.

But she WAS a virgin.  Jesus was the Son of God and the son of Mary.  Divine and human.  How is this possible?  It isn't.  Yet it WAS, because God can do anything.  Why on earth would God choose this situation to use to bring His glorious, precious Son into this world?  Jesus was leaving His home in heaven to come to earth. 

The most relevant equivalent I can think of would be someone like Bill Gates choosing to give up all his possessions, power, family privilege, everything, to go live in the ghetto somewhere, completely homeless.  Times a million.

So why?  I'll share my theory in a moment.

First, I want to take a look at the family blood line of Jesus.  In Matthew 1:1-6, we read:

"This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham:

Abraham was the father of Isaac,

Isaac the father of Jacob,

Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,

Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar,

Perez the father of Hezron.... (skipped a bunch)

Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab,

Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth,

Obed the father of Jesse,

and Jesse the father of King David.

David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife...

There's obviously more, but just the parts of these 6 verses, I wanted to point out the few names I have in italics. 

Jacob:  he was a thief and a liar.  He stole his older twin brother's birthright and blessing.  (Genesis chapters 25-27)
Judah and Tamar:   Judah failed to have his youngest son marry Tamar after his eldest son died, as was tradition back then.  (The brother of a widow's husband married her.)  So Tamar disguised herself as a prostitute and slept with Judah (her father-in-law).
Rahab:  was a prostitute  
King David, whom God called the apple of His eye (and the woman who had been Uriah's wife):
The woman was Bathsheba.  David saw her one day, and decided he wanted to have an affair with her.  So he did.  She got pregnant, so to cover up his sin, David sent her husband, Uriah, out to battle, in the front lines, so he would be killed.  Their first baby died, but then they went on to have Solomon.

Does this sound like the pedigree of the Savior of the World?  So why on earth are these people in the royal lineage of Jesus?

Because we are ALL flawed human beings, and sin is sin is sin to God.  It doesn't matter if you lie, cheat, steal or kill. It's all the same to God:  it's sin.  So there would HAVE to be sinners in the lineage of Jesus.

So why HIGHLIGHT them?  I believe it's the same reason that he chose Mary to be the mother of Jesus:  God can use anyone, anytime, for any purpose.  No one is too "bad" to be saved, or too "common" to be used by God for great and mighty things!  Mary was practically a child herself!  Rahab was a prostitute, yet she helped the Israelite spies get out of the land of Canaan.  King David was an adulterer and a murderer!  And yet THESE are the people that God uses.  I have made many mistakes in my life, yet God can still use me to do His will.

He doesn't wait for us to get right before He can and/or will use us.  He meets us right where we are.

So this isn't your usual Christmas post.  But on the day of our Savior's birth, I want you to really understand that Jesus came to save this dying world.  And every. single. person. in. it.

And that includes YOU.  Just the way you are.
Merry Christmas!

The True Meaning of Christmas to Me...Hope

Hope.

So much power in such small word. I have always been an eternal optimist. Always seen the glass as half full, filled with the best thing you could ever want, and expecting it to be completely full soon. After being afflicted with a chronic, debilitating illness, that glass shattered. Some friends and I were talking about this glass-half-full business a while back, and the eternal pessimist said, "Glass? What glass?" Well, that's about where I was.

But thank GOD He didn't leave me there. I can't STAND the thought of no hope. It's not that I see the world through rose-colored glasses, because trust me, I do not. But ponder this:

"Sanity may be madness but the maddest of all is to see life as it is and not as it should be."
-Don Quixote

I may not be healthy right now, but I hope that someday I will be here on earth. I KNOW I will be in heaven. It's choosing to believe the good. Yes, you may be disappointed. But living life, just accepting where you are, to "see life as it is instead of as it should be..." That is so powerful! Think about how different things would be if everyone TRULY started living as they SHOULD. Every moment of every day. Impossible? I don't think so.

Jesus was born so that we can have that hope. Christmas to me, is so NOT commercial. We don't talk about Santa Claus, (I know, how controversial!), we celebration Jesus' birthday. If He never came, there would be no HOPE. And I'm not sure I could live my life like that. I should never have been able to have this precious child, Jacob...but Hope prevailed, and God blessed me so much!

"Hope is like a road in the country; there never was a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence." -Lin Yutang

I know life can hurt. I know life can be unfair...believe me, I know. But I also know that HOPE is more powerful than unfairness. It is bigger than fear. It is stronger than despair.
It is the infertile woman knowing she will someday be a mother. It is the sick among us knowing that someday they will be well. It is the "poor" among us who know they are really, immeasurably blessed.

Hope lives. You can take a lot from a person, but as long as they have hope, they will go on.
This Christmas, try living life as it should be, not as is it. See where it takes you.
Always remember the Reason for the Season.
Merry Christmas,
and Merry SITS-mas sisters!