If I had written the book of Matthew, I would not have started it with a genealogy. A long list of hard to pronounce names is hardly an effective way to suck people into a story. Most of the time, I skip right over it. As we’ve been learning in this message series though, the people in Jesus’ family line have interesting stories of their own, and if we skip over them, we miss out on a lot. Jesus wasn’t born out of nowhere--his backstory and family tree are very important. From long before Mary gave birth to Jesus, God was at work, crafting everything together the way he wanted in order to bring Jesus into the world at a specific time and place to fulfill his purpose. Christmas was all around long before anyone else knew there would ever be a holiday to celebrate.
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| Photo Credit: Flickr User regan76, Creative Commons |
The book of Ruth starts out rather bleak. There’s a famine, so Elimelek, his wife Naomi, and their two sons move to Moab in hopes of finding a better life there. Then Elimelek dies, and after a while, both sons do too, leaving behind their wives. Naomi decides she’s had enough and moves back to the land of Judah. In a bright moment in an otherwise pretty dark story so far, her daughter-in-law Ruth insists on staying with her, saying, “Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.” Life isn’t easy for them when they return though, and Naomi changes her name to Mara, meaning “bitter.”
When we’re reading this story, it’s tempting to rush to the next chapter to find out what happens next--and in fact, Naomi and Ruth do get happy plot twists. But they didn’t know that when they returned to Judah. They couldn’t flip ahead to see how their stories would end; they had to live them, just like we do.
It can be easy to get lost in the day-to-day details of living, especially this time of year, as we scurry to make lists, buy presents, show up at the parties on time, and try to enjoy it all as well. Added into the mix are the bigger emotions holidays and the end of the year bring about--maybe it’s sorrow at losing someone we love, regret over a bad decision, or disappointment when things didn’t turn out like we had hoped. When we’re plodding through the middle of our stories, trying to simply keep moving from one day to the next and get some presents under the tree, it can be hard to see God at work. Like Naomi, we may feel bitter, not seeing how a famine, losing family members, and multiple moves could somehow be a part of something bigger. We may want to look ahead, to see what’s coming next, to get ourselves prepared for the bad stuff and breath a sigh of relief and excitement at all of the good to come.
While we can’t look ahead at our own lives, we do have the rest of Ruth and Naomi’s story at least. Ruth ends up marrying Boaz, the “kinsman-redeemer” of Naomi’s family. They all become part of the lineage of the greatest redeemer, Jesus. Throughout Naomi and Ruth’s trials, Christmas was already all around--God truly was at work, prepping for Christmas years and years in advance. In the same way, God is at work in our lives as well, preparing beginnings and middles and endings to stories we may not even be aware of yet.
As we prepare for Christmas next week, may we be able to see and appreciate the ways that God is at work all around us.
[Brianna DeWitt is a Christmas enthusiast. She believes in Jesus, surrounding yourself with good people, and that desserts are best when they involve chocolate and peanut butter. She writes about faith, growing up, and whatever else pops into her head on her own blog, and tweets (largely about food) at @bwitt722.]
