When the Mess Becomes the Message

We've all experienced it—those picture-perfect moments that suddenly unravel. Christmas morning joy dissolves into sibling squabbles before the wrapping paper hits the trash. The family road trip starts with carols and laughter, only to devolve into backseat chaos. Life has a way of going from wonderful to messy in the blink of an eye.

But what if the mess is actually part of the miracle?

Missing the Moment Because of the Mess

There's a curious phenomenon that happens when we look back at photos on our phones. We see smiling faces and beautiful backdrops, and for a moment, we're transported back to what looks like a perfect memory. But then reality kicks in—we remember the tantrum five minutes before the photo, the stress of getting everyone ready, the argument that happened just out of frame.

The truth is, it's incredibly hard to appreciate a moment when you're drowning in the messiness of it. Whether it's year-end work deadlines cluttering up your holiday presence, financial pressures stealing your peace, or relational tensions bubbling beneath the surface of family gatherings—the chaos often obscures the wonder.

Sometimes the manageable mess reveals deeper struggles we don't know how to address. A simple disagreement with your spouse suddenly exposes cracks in the foundation. Disciplining your kids triggers something in you that makes you realize you're repeating patterns you swore you'd never repeat. A work challenge forces you to question whether this is really where you want your life to go.

In those moments, how do you find meaning? How do you trust God when you're confronted with questions you can't answer and realities you'd rather not face?

An Unexpected Opening

The Gospel of Matthew opens in what might be the most unconventional way imaginable for the world's most important story. While Mark jumps straight to the action, Luke carefully sets up his investigative account, and John takes us back to the dawn of creation, Matthew does something different.

He starts with a genealogy.

Seventeen verses of "so-and-so was the father of so-and-so." It's the kind of passage most of us skip in our Bible reading plans. Yet buried in this seemingly mundane list is one of the most powerful messages in all of Scripture.

With every name, there's a story. Matthew is showing how Jesus connects to everything God has been doing since the beginning—fulfilling the promise to Abraham, establishing David's throne forever, remaining faithful even through Israel's exile in Babylon.

But here's where it gets interesting: Matthew doesn't just list the impressive ancestors. He goes out of his way to include the messy ones.

The Scandalous Family Tree

If you were crafting the resume of the Messiah, you'd probably highlight only the best and brightest in his lineage. You'd skip over the embarrassing relatives, the ones who made terrible choices, the ones who knew better but did worse.

Matthew does the opposite.

He includes Tamar, whose story involves deception and a relationship with her father-in-law that would make any modern talk show host blush. He mentions Rahab, identified in Scripture as a prostitute. He lists Ruth, a foreigner from an enemy nation. He references Bathsheba not by name but as "Uriah's wife"—drawing deliberate attention to David's adultery and murder.

The genealogy includes kings who worshiped foreign gods, leaders who made disastrous decisions, and one king who even sacrificed his own son to idols. These aren't the people you'd want to associate with if you're trying to establish credibility.

Yet Matthew puts them front and center in the Christmas story.

Why?

The Miracle Hidden in the Mess

When you forget the mess, you miss the miracle.

Matthew's message is clear: God has been working in messy situations from the beginning. With every terrible decision, with every shady family member, with every branch of the tree that any of us would want to prune from the story, God was present.

The marginalized, the overlooked, the despised—they can all be part of God's kingdom. Those who've lied and schemed, the unfaithful and adulterous, none are too far gone. What we've done in the past doesn't exclude us from being part of what God wants to do in the present and future.

Jesus didn't just come FOR you in whatever mess you find yourself in. He came FROM similar situations.

God With Us in Unexpected Places

This is the wonder of Christmas: God is with us in unexpected places. Not just in our victories and best moments, but in our failures and lowest points too.

Yet how often do we remember the whole story? We either fixate on all the things we think disqualify us, or we downplay our own significance, believing we've never had the big wins that would indicate God has plans for our story.

Life can feel like a never-ending audition where we're constantly being assessed, scrutinized, evaluated. We feel the pressure to perform, to live up to potential—both the expectations of others and our own impossible standards. This pressure inevitably spills over into how we view God.

After all, God repeatedly says "Be holy, because I am holy." And when we measure ourselves against that standard, we come up short. Even on our best days, we still have issues.

But what if we stopped auditioning and started remembering that we already have the part?

Already Chosen

Imagine walking into an audition and being told before you even start: "You're already in. You've already got the part. This is just a formality."

Everything changes. The nervousness disappears. You can actually enjoy the moment because the outcome is already secured.

This is the invitation of Christmas. God has already chosen us. Whether we perform perfectly or hit all the wrong notes, it doesn't change the fact that God's love and forgiveness is available to us.

When humanity couldn't see Him, when we didn't deserve Him, even when we did everything to be excluded from His love, God still chose to be with us.

You can walk in wonder today knowing that God sees you right where you are and knows the history you went through to get there. He invites you to leave behind the labels of who you've been to experience the love He has for you—to see yourself the way He sees you.

No longer flawed, disappointed, or guilty. But forgiven and chosen.

Even in your deepest, darkest, messiest moments of life, He's there with you. That's not just the message of Matthew's genealogy—it's the heart of the gospel itself. The mess doesn't disqualify you from the miracle. Sometimes, the mess is exactly where the miracle happens.