Saturday, January 8

In reading today's passages from Matthew, the concept of choices kept hitting me! We talk about choices within our daily lives but in reading these passages it really hit me how much our daily choices can affect our walks.
We began in Matthew 1 and found the genealogy of Jesus Christ. If most of us our honest, we would probably have to admit that in coming across genealogies, we prefer to just skip over them. I have typically found that to be true except in this particular one. We see this long list of names in Jesus' family tree and many of those names are probably familiar to us. There is Abraham, Issac, Ruth and Boaz, Rahab, David, Amos, and many others. God did not choose to bring His Son into the world through anyone special...He picked ordinary people. And not just ordinary people but in some cases, some really messed up people. We can look at Rahab or David and see people who were known for sins in their life. Jacob had family troubles. Mary was a teenage girl. Yet each of them made the choice when presented with it to turn from the path they were on and follow God. That made them more than just ordinary people, that made them moldable, usuable people; and God followed through.
We move past this genealogy to find the story that over the past few months has hopefully been fresh in our minds...the Christmas story! But more than just a story we hear at Christmas, it is the story of how God's Son came to this earth as a baby, born to ordinary people, to save us. And this account wasn't without a little drama. Joseph was faced with a huge choice! He could have run from the opportunity that God placed in front of him but he chose to listen to the angel of the Lord and be used by God.
In Matthew 2, the account of the wise men is told. We often have this image in our heads of the wise men seeing the star, following it to Bethlehem and finding a baby laying in a manger. That is not the case. The wise men made a choice to go on a long journey. They were brought before Herod and given a task but made the choice not to follow through on it when a dream told them otherwise. They could have followed a different path in life but chose to be a part of God's story.
Ultimately, these passages, no matter when I read them, or how often I read them, remind me of my ability to be used by God for His bigger picture...if I chose to follow Him. It doesn't matter our background, our mess-ups, our fears, or our lack of knowledge, God can and will use those who allow Him to. And WOW! what a cool story all of these people got to be a part of just because they made a choice to follow when God called!