Begin with 2 minutes of stillness and silence before God.

Hey everyone, and welcome to another week of Daily Devos! I’m excited that we are going to be spending the next few weeks diving into the book of Matthew together in preparation for Easter. I’m confident that the Lord is going to speak to each of us in the days ahead. Let’s dive into Matthew 1.

If you’re like me, then you definitely know what I mean when I say that opening up Matthew’s gospel to a list of names is a lot like accidentally walking into a family reunion where you don’t recognize a soul.

Like… maybe that’s Aunt Patty? I’m not certain, but I sure hope there’s pound cake.

If we take a closer look at this first chapter, though, we’ll see that this genealogy is far from a dry recitation of ancestors. In fact, it’s a mosaic of God’s amazing grace, showcasing how He crafts stories of redemption from the fractures of human lives.

Among these names are whispers of scandal, epic tales of brokenness and triumph, and the subtle echoes of grace that tie them all together. We find people like Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba–women whose stories were marked not by their righteousness but by their circumstances and their God-given roles in His redemptive plan. These narratives aren’t sanitized by any means; instead, Matthew highlights them and underlines a critical truth about the human story: God’s grace is magnified in our brokenness.

C.S. Lewis once wrote, “God doesn’t want something from us. He simply wants us.” This first chapter of Matthew is the powerful retelling of this fact. The list doesn’t just give us the saints; it calls by name the sinners, the schemers, and the sidelined, all woven into the lineage of the Savior of the world.

Geez, that gets me every time.

Jesus’ family tree isn’t an accident. It’s a divine design. It serves as a testament to God’s unending grace, a prelude to the story of Jesus, who came not in spite of our brokenness, but because of it.

Jesus entered into our mess. Into my mess. He didn’t choose to be born out of a lineage of perfect, prim, and proper people because His mission was to heal the broken, seek the lost, and save sinners. To save me.

And you.

So, what does this mean for us? It means that our past mistakes, our current struggles, and our future missteps aren’t just footnotes in the story of our lives. They’re opportunities for God’s grace to enter, for redemption to take place, and for a transformation to occur. Our stories, like those in Jesus’ genealogy, aren’t defined by our lowest moments but by the possibility of grace to rewrite our endings. Because of Jesus, the story is never over.

And that, my friends, is good news.

Take 2 minutes to reflect in silence.

Reflection:

• Reflect on your own “family tree” of life experiences. How have you seen God working through the brokenness?
  
• How does it feel to know that Jesus willingly entered a family line–and a world–full of imperfections and sin?
  
• What areas of your life do you need to surrender to Jesus to find healing and wholeness?
  
• Prayer: Father, thank You for the reminder that You use broken people to fulfill Your perfect plan. Thank You for sending Jesus to redeem our stories and make us whole. Help me to see both my past and my current life through Your grace-filled eyes. Teach me to find my identity in You and not in my failures. Thank You for showing me that because of Jesus, my story is never over. In Jesus’ name, amen.