Matthew begins his gospel by tracing the family line of Jesus Christ. As we will see throughout this entire week, the families in the genealogy of Jesus are pretty much like our own families – messed up and broken. This is good news for us all because then we know that there is hope for our own families. That although there are all kinds of brokenness, Jesus is able to redeem and restore. That it is possible to still have a blessed Christmas even when we have broken families.

The first people that we look at today are Judah and Tamar, whose story is found in Genesis 38. Judah is Tamar’s father-in-law but ends up having sexual relations with her, thinking she is a cult prostitute. As a result, twin boys are born – Perez and Zerah – and one ends up being Jesus’s great great grandfather. Imagine that! One of Jesus’s grandfathers was born out of incest. Was Judah their father or was he their grandfather? This was the kind of mess that this family was in. Yet despite that, the Messiah still comes through that family line. It does not matter how messed up our family is, Jesus is able to redeem, He is able to make something beautiful out of that mess. This Christmas, as we are reminded of how messy our families are, let us remember the redeeming Messiah who also came from a messy family line.

1. Is your family messy? There is still hope for it

2. How will today’s devotion affect how you view the mess in your family?