What Defines You

Today’s reading (Matthew 1) mostly features a genealogy of Jesus, which seems boring and is easy to skim past. But the really cool thing is that Jesus’ genealogy includes liars, adulterers, murderers. It’s actually the family line of Joseph, who verse 16 says was married to Jesus’ mother Mary, which was true, but not when Jesus was born. So not only was Jesus’ genealogy very messy, but everyone in His town would have considered Him a bastard child.

And what’s cool is that none of that defined Him. He didn’t allow it to. He was who He was, not who His great-great-great-Grandfather was, or the circumstances He was born into.

Do you know that you are who you are? Unless you let them, your relatives don’t taint you, and your circumstances don’t define you. If you read the first 19 verses of this chapter, you’d be thinking, “Oh no, this poor Jesus Christ, He’s going to be a mess, His life will be miserable.” But starting in verse 20 we learn the reality of who Jesus is and would be.

So maybe your background is a mess, maybe your past has been miserable. That doesn’t define you. Have your own verse 20 as you understand and begin to live in who you really are and will be.