Devotionals for the Heart: Perfection

So, Your Family Isn’t Perfect?
A devotional by Wendy Wilson Spooner

“Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” –Colossians 3:13 (NIV)

Sometimes families are difficult. For some of us, it’s all the time. But Christ asks us to learn to forgive. And families are the perfect place to practice forgiveness.

It’s easy to watch happy families surrounding us and forget that we each have familial secrets and challenges.

When we think about Christ’s family—his mother, Mary, his divine Father and his earthly father, Joseph, it’s easy to see perfection. But our Savior’s earthly ancestry was anything but perfect.

Christ descends through King David, who slew Goliath and started out pretty flawless. David was descended from Boaz and Ruth—widowed Ruth who moved to Bethlehem with her beloved Mother-in-law and then married her second husband, Boaz.

Boaz was the son of Rahab, who was a Canaanite and harlot. But Rahab hid the Israelite spies and was spared when the city of Jericho fell. Rahab was saved because of her faith, and her family was spared because of her good deeds.

Rahab’s husband was Salmon, descended from Judah the son of Jacob. But Salmon was not descended from Judah’s wife but through the line of Tamar, who was the widow of both Judah’s eldest and second sons. Judah should have offered his third eldest son to take Tamar to wife. But he did not. So, Tamar dressed as a veiled prostitute, and not knowing, Judah hired her. After this encounter, Tamar gave birth to twins.

It’s through this line that Jesus Christ descends from King David and Bathsheba. Bathsheba, whose husband King David arranged to be killed in battle. David, who wrote Psalms to the Lord and was promised the Messiah would be born through his lines. David, who forfeited his exaltation because he coveted another man’s wife.

Bathsheba had no choice but to marry King David after her husband was killed. She then became the mother of wise King Solomon—an influencer of Kings.

Jesus’ earthly ancestry was full of people who committed great sins and made mistakes. But he also had ancestors who experienced terrific pain through no fault of their own, like Ruth and Bathsheba.

If you find yourself discouraged that your family is problematic and inadequate, well, so was our Savior’s family. But because of Him, we can learn to forgive and be reconciled to God—to be saved, because He’s already forgiven us of our sins and asks us to do the same.

And He’s here to help us, especially when it’s painfully hard.

If Christ could forgive those who spit on him, whipped him, betrayed him, and crucified him, surely, there is hope for us to forgive difficult family members. And we can learn to do this by leaning on Jesus.

Because of Him, even in imperfect families, we can experience moments of perfection.

And so, your family isn’t perfect? Well, no one’s is. And that’s ok. Because what we learn from and amid imperfection, will one day lead to our perfection in Jesus Christ.

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Author Bio:

Wendy is a professional Genetic Genealogist by day, a writer by night, and an artist in between.

Her first book, Once Upon an Irish Summer, is a YA crossover historical fiction novel, the first in a trilogy, traditionally published by Ambassador International, set to release on April 3, 2020 in five countries.

Wendy’s love of history compels her to write the true stories she unearths during her research, and she’s found that truth is indeed, stranger, and way more exciting than fiction. 

Wendy writes about family, faith, grief, art, and overcoming the obstacles in life by coming to know who we really are—a child of God, and, the descendant of incredible people who paved the way for us to have the lives we have now—even if they really struggled. She believes in learning from ancestors, honoring them, and then standing on their shoulders to become someone even better.

Wendy is an award-winning author of professional articles and poems, who turned to novel writing to share what she knows with more people.

To learn more about Wendy, her interests, and writing, visit her website at WendyWilsonSpooner.com.

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