As a child, one of my favorite things to do around this time of year was coming up with my Christmas list. I can remember spending hours going through catalogues and ads in the newspaper trying to create the perfect list with the hope that when Christmas day came, there might be a few of my choices under the tree. For most of my life, I never realized that God had included a list in His Christmas story as well. Although we often miss it, the book of Matthew begins not with the birth of Jesus but with a list.

This list is clearly different than most of ours. While we list numerous “things” that we want, God used his list to describe the type of people He had used to usher in the birth of Jesus. A few of these people wouldn’t have been a surprise as he included some of the great men of the Old Testament such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and King David.

Then, out of nowhere, God did something very interesting with his list. He began to include some unexpected names of people that nobody would have guessed to be the genealogy of Jesus. He included Tamar, a woman known for her deception in the book of Genesis. Next came Rahab, a known prostitute that God chose to use in the book of Joshua. Later came an outsider named Ruth, who had not even known there was a God most of her life but was welcomed nonetheless by a man named Boaz. Finally, He included a woman named Bathsheba, a woman known more for her adultery than any of her other actions in Scripture.

The question then becomes, “Why??” Why would God add these imperfect people to his perfect list? Why would He use the lives of these people to usher in the greatest event in human history- Jesus’ birth? The answer to this question is simple. He did this to show you that no matter who you are and no matter what you have done, Jesus was sent into the world as His gift of love to you. He did not come for the elite, the wealthy, and the religious alone, but for everyone.

From the beginning of time to Christmas 2009, God has chosen imperfect people to accomplish great things for Him. May God’s Christmas list remind you how valuable you are to Him and encourage you to show that same type of love to those around you.