A good friend who is gay told me, “My passport has been updated. My school transcripts, my cosmetology license and other documents are packed in case we have to leave in a hurry. We do not want to leave, but if things go sour, we will migrate to New Zealand.”
This was in February 2025. He is in a same-sex marriage and was afraid of being deported because of President Trump’s expressed attitude toward people in such a situation.
“I am your retribution,” Trump said at his rallies before the 2024 election. “When elected, there will be a mass deportation that this country has never experienced.”
When I wrote this chapter, thousands of federal workers had received termination notices, with Trump spokesmen saying more were to come.
Judges all over the country were trying to determine the legality of the firings.
Alvin Toffler, a futurist, predicted long ago, that a day would come when America may have to rewrite its constitution to survive what he described as “an era of information avalanche.”
It seems the world is falling apart. Look at the headlines – same-sex marriage and the transgender population are on the rise; millions of babies are killed by abortion; drive-by shootings occur everywhere; many bridges in America are collapsing; the national debt is in the trillions; North Korea’s nuclear capabilities are on the increase.
Television newscasters usually end their news reports smiling. It would seem they should be weeping at the messy world we live in.
Sometimes I feel like migrating to a desert or entering a monastery.
But that would be un-Christian. Running away from our messy world is not the answer to facing a scary tomorrow.
How on earth can we navigate our lives in this world?
Hope and trust are parts of the answer to our question.
We need to beg God to grant us hope – hope that in the midst of our messiness, He will bring us safely to Him.
Our messy world could be the reason why Matthew included the genealogy of Jesus Christ in the Gospel.
Maybe he wanted to show us that even the Messiah did not have a perfect past.
If you have doubts about the future, read about Jesus’ ancestors.
Our Lord Jesus Christ did not come from a lineage of saints.
God promised to send a Messiah through Abraham’s blood line. (Genesis 12:2-3). And God did. But Abraham, who was called the “father of nations,” was a liar.
Jacob, Abraham’s grandson, cheated his brother, Esau.
A few generations later on the genealogical chart came Jesus’ ancestor, David, who as king of Israel had an affair with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, his leading general. When she became pregnant by David, he had Uriah killed in battle so he could marry Bathsheba.
Those are some of Jesus’ not-so-great ancestors, all of whom had one thing in common – the promise that a Messiah would be born of their line.
God used Jesus’ ancestors to fulfill the promise of a Messiah. God did not have to. God could have left the Savior on a doorstep. It could have been simpler that way.
Why did God use Scripture to tell the stories of the blunders and stumbles of Jesus’ ancestors?
Maybe because God knew what we would hear in the newscasts of our era.
God knew that we would fret and worry about our messy world.
God wants us to know that when the world gets wild, God stays calm.
Matthew’s genealogy ends with the fulfilment of God’s promise of a Messiah.
“Joseph was the husband of Mary and Mary was the mother of Jesus. Jesus was the Christ,”. Scripture says. (Matthew 1:16).
After Jesus, no more names were added to the genealogy. No more names were needed.
The end of Matthew’s genealogy is like God announcing to the doubting world, “See, I did it just I have said I would.”
God’s plan succeeded.
Famine could not starve it. Four hundred years of slavery in Egypt could not oppress it. Forty years in the wilderness could not lose it. Babylonian captivity could not end it.
God’s promise of the Messiah threaded through 42 generations from Abraham to Jesus’ birth – 42 rough-cut stones that formed a necklace fit for the King – fit for the promised Messiah.
And God’s promise remains: “Those who keep their faith till the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:13).
“In this world, you will have trouble, but be brave. I have defeated the world.” This is Jesus’ promise to us. (John 16:33).
The Engineer has not abandoned the train. Russia, North Korea or China are not threats to God. Nor are misguided politicians. Mortal leaders cannot derail God’s plan.
God keeps his promises. See for yourself.
Look at the manger. Jesus is there. Look at the tomb. He is not there. He has risen!