As we step into this holy time of Advent I always find it so comforting to know that long before Mary, before Joseph God was at work, making a way.
From the bosom of Abraham, a line was forming, winding its way through the generations. Children were being born to women, women carrying the lineage of men.
This line of lineage would make its way to Joseph the earthly father of our Savior, Jesus the Christ.
Within this line there are many women who carried this precious lineage, yet there are four who were called out by name.
Tamar, left to live life as an abandoned widow would refuse to give up. Redemption would find her as she carried the twins of Judah, from the tribe of the Lion.
Rahab, filled with bravery, would choose the God of Israel, and protect His people. She would come to know the redeemed life of a wife and carry the son of an Israelite.
Ruth, after a life of loss she would make her way to her Kinsman Redeemer and would be filled with the joy of new birth.
Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah who would also bare the consequence of King David’s sin, would know the heartache of losing her first born. Yet redemption would come, and she would carry one who would be called, the wisest of men, into the world.
The Four were outsiders, scorned, judged, and abandoned, yet they chose to press on. As they birthed their children, they did not know that they had stepped into the glorious line of lineage that would lead to the birth of our Savior- Jesus.
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