This is a clever title for a television show about genealogy. I always find it fascinating to watch people delve back into their family history to uncover stories about ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Or extraordinary people living through periods in history which seem so remote to us now. The other show I always really enjoy is Long Lost Family. Where people search for adopted children or lost parents or estranged siblings. It is always so moving to hear peoples stories.
Today I was reading Matthew chapter 1 - the genealogy of Jesus. My knowledge of Biblical history isn't brilliant but reading through the list of names you don't need to be a theologian to recognise that there are some interesting characters in there. There are four women for a start! Two of whom were ' foreigners' and two of whom were ' unsavoury characters' , There are kings and founding fathers mixed in with ne'erdowells and all sorts. For a Jew, heritage is immensely important. And Matthew knows that in order to establish the fact that Jesus fulfils biblical prophecy about Messiah he is going to have to be able to prove that Jesus is of the line of David and a son of Abraham. But in so doing he also reveals Jesus to be descended from a pretty mixed bag. As am I. As are you 😊😊
Jesus could trace his family tree right back ( through both Mary and Joseph) to Adam but He was also ' adopted'. He was born, in effect, to a mother and a step father and was entrusted by God to Mary and Joseph whilst all the time belonging to another kingdom and having a divine nature. When I watch the people on Long Lost Family so many of them say how much they have loved and appreciated their adoptive parents but that there is still a gaping hole , a missing, a question mark, a deep longing for the birth parent. I suspect that Jesus knows how that feels. Mary and Joseph were undoubtably remarkable people and I'm sure they loved Jesus very much. But they were human, sinful, fallible, normal working ordinary people. They were not God. Surely Jesus must have longed for and missed that face to face, heaven dwelling, angel surrounded, emerald rainbow presence of Abba. He chose to live for thirty odd years with that aching longing so that He could search out, find, and bring back His long lost family - His brothers and sisters, you and I. And so many people don't even know they have a big brother who is looking for them!
Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell are the presenters who get to knock on doors and tell people that someone has been searching for them. Sometimes people have no idea that they have siblings or step siblings, grandchildren, nieces and nephews. It obviously makes for great television. But it also touches something deep inside all of us. We need to belong. We want to be found. We can't fill the void with anyone or anything else, however lovely and good they might be.
This Christmas Jesus is still looking for His long lost family. Maybe you can be Davina or Nicky to someone you know and be the one who knocks on the door and says ' You might not know this, but someone has been looking for you for a long time. Would you like to meet them? '
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