It’s finally December! Christmas music is everywhere! Do you love it or are you counting down the days until the regular programming is back?

Do you have your tree up yet?  How do you like to decorate it?  Do you do a theme that’s the same every year or different every year?

My mom and I decorate my grandpa’s tree almost every year for the past 10 years.  He has a lot of lights and decorations so we have fun choosing how we’re going to decorate every year.

One year, everything was white and silver.  Another year, it was all red and green.  And another it was blue and white and silver.

I find that it brings me joy to decorate a Christmas tree, even if it isn’t mine.  And it brings joy to everybody who gets to see it.

And don’t get me started on how much I love wrapping Christmas presents.  The sparklier the paper the better!  And the ribbons and bows!!

There’s just something about making things beautiful that brings me joy.

I think it’s a gift I’ve been given.  What gift have you been given that you use to bless others?

Will I decorate your tree?  Will I wrap your gifts for you?  Maybe.  You’ll have to ask.

The passages I picked for today have to do with Jesus’ family.  Before you say that reading all the genealogy (family tree) stuff makes you sleepy, hear me out.

It used to make me sleepy, too, if I read it at all.  A lot of times, I’d just skip over it.  I don’t think I’m alone in doing that.  It’s just a bunch of people’s names.  And some of those names!  Try saying Amminadab 10 times fast.  Or Shealtiel.

But these names are important.  They tell us about Jesus’ family, his ancestors.  And we can look them up and read about them.  And they gave the people reading Matthew’s story his background.

Matthew does an odd thing here that most dudes in his day don’t do.  He includes women in this list of Jesus’ ancestors.  Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba.

And if you go back and look up the stories of some of these guys you’ll read about all kinds of mistakes they made.

Judah and his boys make for one messed up story.  Tamar was his daughter-in-law.  She had been married to Judah’s oldest son.  Then he was killed.  So she married the middle son.  And then he was killed.  And the youngest son wasn’t quite old enough to get married yet, so Judah told her to go live at home until his youngest son was old enough to get married.

Well, he didn’t do that.  Tamar heard about it and concocted a clever plan to get Judah to keep his promise to her.

Long story short, Judah got Tamar pregnant and ended up marrying her.  Quite the story.

And maybe you’ve heard about David, who was king, and he saw Bathsheba taking a bath next door.  She was married to one of his Navy Seal-type soldiers, Uriah.  He sleeps with her and gets her pregnant.   Then he calls Uriah back from the front lines of battle and tries to get him to sleep with his wife.  Which he doesn’t.

Then David tells the general to make sure Uriah dies in battle.  And the general does.  And Uriah dies.  After the appropriate mourning period, David marries Bathsheba.

And these two are part of Jesus’ family.

God didn’t pick perfect people to be Jesus’ human ancestors.  God picked messed up people.

That gives me hope.  He’s okay with messed up people as a part of his family.  That means he’s okay with messed up me.

Matthew 1:1-17

This is a record of the ancestors of Jesus the Messiah, a descendant of David and of Abraham : Abraham was the father of Isaac. Isaac was the father of Jacob. Jacob was the father of Judah and his brothers. Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah (whose mother was Tamar). Perez was the father of Hezron. Hezron was the father of Ram. Ram was the father of Amminadab. Amminadab was the father of Nahshon. Nahshon was the father of Salmon. Salmon was the father of Boaz (whose mother was Rahab). Boaz was the father of Obed (whose mother was Ruth). Obed was the father of Jesse. Jesse was the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon (whose mother was Bathsheba, the widow of Uriah). Solomon was the father of Rehoboam. Rehoboam was the father of Abijah. Abijah was the father of Asa. Asa was the father of Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat was the father of Jehoram. Jehoram was the father of Uzziah. Uzziah was the father of Jotham. Jotham was the father of Ahaz. Ahaz was the father of Hezekiah. Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh. Manasseh was the father of Amon. Amon was the father of Josiah. Josiah was the father of Jehoiachin and his brothers (born at the time of the exile to Babylon). After the Babylonian exile: Jehoiachin was the father of Shealtiel. Shealtiel was the father of Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel was the father of Abiud. Abiud was the father of Eliakim. Eliakim was the father of Azor. Azor was the father of Zadok. Zadok was the father of Akim. Akim was the father of Eliud. Eliud was the father of Eleazar. Eleazar was the father of Matthan. Matthan was the father of Jacob. Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Mary gave birth to Jesus, who is called the Messiah. All those listed above include fourteen generations from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the Babylonian exile, and fourteen from the Babylonian exile to the Messiah.

Andrew Peterson decided to make this into a song. It makes it more fun.

I absolutely LOVE this album (Behold the Lamb of God).  It’s more than just the story of the first Christmas.  It’s about why Jesus came.  It’s thought-provoking and comforting and wonderful!

Here’s a link to Andrew Peterson’s store.  If you’re looking to buy me a Christmas present, I won’t say no to ANYTHING from this store.

And if you’re really feeling generous, you can fly me to one of his concerts in Nashville.