Christmas Special

 During Elizabeth’s sixth month of pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to a virgin girl who lived in Nazareth, a town in Galilee. She was engaged to marry a man named Joseph from the family of David. Her name was Mary. The angel came to her and said, “Greetings! The Lord is with you; you are very special to him.”” Luke 1:26-28 ERV

Have you ever wanted to be "special" to someone?

For those of us who are people-pleasers, it probably meant we worked overtime to get someone's attention and then worked equally hard to make ourselves indispensable to them. The only thing we strove for was to hear that elusive complement or affirmation that we were valuable and loved.
Sometimes it worked - we received the affirmations we needed. Other times, people walked all over us, taking advantage of our neediness without providing the positive affirmation we so desperately wanted. Been there and done that....

But imagine for a moment having the God of the universe send an angel to you to tell you that you were "special" to him and he had a job for you.

Mary wasn't anyone important - she wasn't the daughter of a rich or important family, although she was a descendant of King David as Luke points out in his gospel. But her family was as poor and nondescript as most of the families in the land of Judah at that time. She had never done anything to stand out in a crowd to attract God's favor. She was a normal Jewish girl.
So why would God single her out?

1. She met the qualifications:
a. Family-wise, she was a direct descendant of King David. She was engaged to a man who was also from David’s direct line so there could be no doubt of the child’s family tree in the fulfillment of prophecy.
b. Physically, she was a virgin of child-bearing age, which fulfilled the prophecy that Jesus would be conceived miraculously.
c. Personality-wise, she was a courageous young woman, willing to do what God asked her, even if it meant being ostracized by her family and friends, and willing to face death if needed (to be an unwed and pregnant Jewish girl could mean a death by stoning).
d. Spiritually, she had the same tender heart toward God that her ancestor David had. She was yielded to God, willing to allow him to do whatever he wanted with her life.

Sure she had some doubts and fears about everything. Who wouldn't? But her heart was right.
Like Mary, God is seeking us out to be part of his family - not because we are "special" or good enough or important enough. No. He's seeking us out because he made us and he wants us to be a part of his family. Because of that, he works with us, making us special and polishing the uniqueness that he placed in us - our talents, abilities and those other great things we didn't know we possessed.

He seeks us out because he loves us. His love makes us special to him; it's not about anything we can do for him.

It took me a long time to understand and accept that - and actually, I'm still working on it since the people-pleasing parts of my personality were cast in concrete during my formative years. But the journey has been invigorating and blessed!

I'm inviting you to join me on this journey. Let Jesus show you how special you are to him - not because of who or what you are; not because of anything you've done; but because you are His!

Amen.

That's some family tree!

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:14 NIV

In my youth church class, we've been doing a section of lessons based on the idea of a Jesse Tree***. I wanted to highlight some of the major ancestors in the family tree of Jesus to show the young people how God can and will incorporate us into his family tree, no matter what kind of crazy, mixed-up "characters" we are.

In our study this week, we did a lesson on the 12 sons of Jacob based on a blog post I read over at Teach Them about Jacob's 12 sons. Jacob is the grandson of Abraham, and a part of the direct family tree of Jesus.

And boy was he a character - along with his family! Jacob had 12 sons to four different women (two of them were sisters). His story comes complete with jealousy, intrigue, murder attempts and mayhem.

Hmmmm. Sounds like some of those TV soaps, doesn't it?

Most of us know the story of Joseph, the favored son / owner of the coat of many colors, who was sold into slavery in Egypt and ended up as the second most important person there, next to Pharaoh.

But when I asked the youth which one of Jacob's 12 sons was mentioned in the lineage of Jesus, no one knew. They all thought it was Joseph because of the importance placed on his story in scripture.

Who do you think it is?

Some of you are shaking your heads in bewilderment. And, of course, some of you know the answer - it was Judah, the 4th born son. Usually the first-born holds the position of authority and leadership in a clan But not in this case. Reuben, Simeon and Levi were passed over for Judah, #4 in line because of misconduct, jealousy and selfishness with regard to Joseph.

No, Judah wasn't faultless - he was in on the jealous plan to get rid of Joseph with his other brothers. But Judah redeemed himself in the eyes of his father later on when he went out of his way to protect his youngest half-brother, Benjamin (Joseph's younger brother), from an unknown fate at the hands of Pharaoh's 2nd in command in Egypt.

To spare his father further grief, since Jacob had already lost one son (he thought Joseph was dead), Judah exchanged his life for Benjamin's, taking the now-favored,youngest son's place in the Egyptian prison for a time. He had no idea whether he would ever see his family again, but he knew he couldn't allow his father to lose another son borne by Jacob's beloved wife, Rachel.

Judah's name means "praise" and the sign of his clan became a roaring lion - a fitting sign for the coming Messiah.

No matter what kind of soap-opera life we've had, Jesus is in the business of redemption. He wants to change our hearts and include us in his family of crazy, mixed-up, REDEEMED sons and daughters.

Let him change your heart today!

***For those who are unfamiliar with the Jesse Tree, it is a sort of Advent calendar in the shape of a tree (a paper tree, bare tree branch or even a small Christmas tree) with a special ornament that is added each day through the Advent season. Each ornament is related to a Bible story or person who is part of the lineage or timeline leading up to Christ.

There are lots of online resources for anyone wanting more information. Just google "Jesse Tree" and you'll find stories and patterns for ornaments.