How is this going to happen? We are told that God is going to do it, and because God was going to place His son in her womb “Therefore”, he says, the child would be holy.  The virgin birth is a miraculous part of the Christmas story but so little is really said about it I fear we might miss its importance.  In many ways, this part can be quickly ran over. We can be too subtle or cursory in our explanation  out of fear our children will ask MORE questions about what it means for Mary to be a virgin. There is a need to apply wisdom in this area, and engage in the right age-appropriate dialogue for the child and situation. However, don’t let your anxiety push you into missing an opportunity to understand and explain in greater detail our problem of sin.

Two miraculous pregnancies are part of the Christmas story, one with Elizabeth and the other with Mary. Zechariah questioned the more probable pregnancy(Elizabeth’s) which might be surprising given he was serving in the temple as a priest. He would have had the respect of others and be considered a wise and devout man. We are told that He and Elizabeth were righteous before God, so we can be sure he had lived a long, faithful life according to scripture. However, when it came time to believe the angels’ news we find him to be less trusting than Mary! Zechariah’s answer to the angel reads innocently enough, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years.” But there comes with it a lack of reverence. As a consequence, Gabriel tells Zechariah that he will be unable to speak,  “Until the day these things take place.”

The next woman mentioned is Ruth. Ruth was also graphed in. She was a Moabite woman who married one of the sons of Naomi.  She was a widow like Tamar, who also lost two sons before following her mother-in-law back to Israel. In Ruth’s famous words she tells Naomi, “Where you will go I will go, where you lodge I will lodge, your People shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried.”  ….

Essentially, may nothing but death part me from you.

Onto the “Begats”!  Begat means to bring something (or in this case someone) about. It means that when Abraham begat Isaac, that Isaac was the son, or offspring, of Abraham.  There is a long list (42 names) of who gave birth from Abraham to Jesus in Matthew chapter 1.  In fact, there are 3 larger groups; the first, Abraham to David, the second David to Josiah, and the third Jechoniah to Jesus.  This list is not meant to be an exhaustive list of all dependents but one we can follow through Israel’s history to indeed verify that Jesus was from the line of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David.  This is important to establish that Jesus is the Messiah since the one who comes must be able to show these lines if prophecy is to be fulfilled. For many years this list was precisely just that to me- a family tree.

Ever wondered why Matthew starts out the Christmas story with the genealogy of Jesus? You may not be aware of the fact that the Bible spoke many things about Jesus and his coming thousands of years before he was born to Mary. In fact, the first clue to what God was planning is located in Genesis right after the fall of mankind into sin. As God gives out the consequences to Adam, Eve, and the Serpent’s disobedience to He includes this proclamation; God says, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

It All Begins Here

It All Begins Here

It All Begins Here

It All Begins Here