December 17, 2025 // Wednesday of the Third Week of Advent
Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: Matthew 1:1-17
Reflect on the Word //
Sometimes when I’m talking to my toddlers I like to quiz them on where they fall in the family line up. I’ll say something like, “Do you know which baby you are of mine? Are you baby number 3? How about baby number 7? And then, “And do you know which babies came before you?” We run through all the siblings, and they smile and giggle when we get to their special spot in the line up. This conversation is mostly just silly and cute but it also firms up a beautiful reality for them and for me. Their existence has a place and a purpose in our family life. They were meant to be. People came before and people came after but their place is unique, special, unrepeatable. A spark in the narrative of humanity, and the start of something remarkable—new life. Endless possibility and optimism, ordained and ordered by the Creator of all.
I think this is a part of the beauty of humankind: Our connectedness and our place also speaks to our purpose. Who we came from and where we are going matters; our existence in a time and place matters.
It’s easy to skim through the genealogy narrative in the Gospel, but for today, let’s not. Let’s see this lineage as deeply meaningful and also deeply human. For God became Man, to be with us, to be known by us, and to elevate our humanity. The family tree is now holy; your place in the world is holy.
God is so good that He loves our existence, and He sees our purpose as infinite and eternal. He is so good that Jesus Christ was born into something as normal as lineage—to be like us, so that we can be like Him. The ordinary, now super-ordinary. The day-to-day, divine.
Relate to the Lord // Today, be on the lookout for the divine in your day to day.
Blythe Fike is the wife of Kirby and mother of eleven smallish kids in small town SoCal. She firmly believes sanctity is found in the everyday and is trying hard to live that truth, despite her countless fumbles. She enjoys sunshine in heavy doses, good music, and babysitters. She is a contributing author to our children’s devotional prayer book, Rise Up. Find out more about her here.
Walk With Us this Advent
Get Your Prayerful Planner
