If you are like me you might have a bit of an attitude toward the first chapter of the Book of Matthew. The book of Matthew starts with the lengthy narrative of the genealogy of Jesus. I don’t know about you, but I kind of like to skip by all this. It’s lots of “this person begot this person who begot that person” and so on and so on and so on. I like to skip to the exciting part. The Christmas Day part. You know, to the eggnog and the gift giving. But I have discovered that there is a real purpose in this genealogy. It is all about hope and promises. God wants to show us how long it was between his promise of a Savior, his promise of Salvation and his kingdom on earth, and when it actually came to pass. God is true to his promises. And this lengthy genealogy gives us an opportunity to meet all of these people in the Old Testament, some of whom had really messy lives, and yet it was through them that Jesus was able to come into the world. That gives me hope because my life is often very messy. And yet it is through that mess that I hope that I can also be a part of the coming of Christ. Let’s take a look at verse 17:
17Thus the total number of generations from Abraham to David is fourteen generations; from David to the Babylonian exile, fourteen generations; from the Babylonian exile to the Messiah, fourteen generations.*
Friends, that’s 14+14+14 generations between the time God made his promise to Abraham until that promise was fulfilled. That’s a long time. Now, as a woman and momma who is praying for Jesus to be born in the hearts of her own loved ones, I feel like I am waiting an eternity for that promise to be full filled.
When Mary went to visit her cousin Elizabeth, Elizabeth said to her, Luke 1:45 “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”
What promise in your own life are you waiting for God to fulfill? What is the deepest longing of your momma or poppa heart? Your heart as a wife? Your heart as a friend, sister, son or daughter? What promise do you long for God to fulfill in his time? Bring that longing today onto your yoga mat. Let that longing spill out of your heart and into God’s own ears. Let him know as you breathe in and out, as you stretch and move, that great longing that you hold deep in your own heart. And hear him say to you, “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be full filled”.