Part of the  Joy of the story of Jesus coming to earth, is that God came because He loves us.  Even when we don't deserve it or have acted in a way that would make Him want to love us He still does.  Galatians says that He came born of a virgin to redeem those under the law.  Possibly there is no greater description of God's grace found anywhere in the Bible than in the genealogy of Jesus.  We spoke about this in the first installment of if you can use anything Lord you can use me, and in this entry we look at the grace of God of three women mentioned in Matthew's record.  It is often said that all families have skeletons in their closet, people that they are not proud of or who did regretful things, and yet they are still part of our family history. But the line of Jesus should be pure and sinless, right?  From God's point of view He sees things through the eyes of grace.  Look further at the line of Jesus in Matthew. First of all it is completely against the custom of the day to list women in the genealogy of a Jewish man.  Yet the Holy Spirit inspires Matthew with the directive of including not just any four women who were especially holy, but in some cases were anything but.  Take a look with me.  Matthew 1:3 lists Tamar who was the mother of twins named Perez and Zerah.  If you read the account of the birth of these twins in Genesis chapter 38 you can see how Tamar had to pretend to be something she was not in order to have her father in law become the father of these twins.  It is a startling account in itself and even greater when you consider the fact that she ends up in line of Jesus. Moving on to verse 5, Rahab is said to be the mother of Boaz.  Well rahab was a harlot who had lead a life that we not one that you and I would boast about and yet God gave graced and used her to be the grandmother of King David.   In Verse 6 the lineage goes on speaking about graced women when it mentions Uriah's wife who name was Bathsheba.  Of course the account of Bathsheba is a sad one of disobedience sin and death.  Yet Matthew spells it out for the believers that God can and does use people who have gone through pain and tragedy in their lives, even when it comes because of their own failure. God is creative and can recreate anything or anyone who will surrender their lives to Him.  If God would step out of the norm and mention woman in the line of Jesus and at that who in many cases were not women that you and I would choose, than He will do whatever is necessary to convey His love and grace.  Merry Christmas Jesus, Thanks for the gift of your grace and your willingness to see beyond our faults and use us in your master plan