He Can Be Trusted

First Reading: Micah 5:1-4a

The LORD says:
You, Bethlehem-Ephrathah,
too small to be among the clans of Judah,
From you shall come forth for me
one who is to be ruler in Israel;
Whose origin is from of old,
from ancient times.
(Therefore the Lord will give them up, until the time
when she who is to give birth has borne,
And the rest of his brethren shall return
to the children of Israel.)
He shall stand firm and shepherd his flock
by the strength of the LORD,
in the majestic name of the LORD, his God;
And they shall remain, for now his greatness
shall reach to the ends of the earth;
he shall be peace.

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 13:6ab, 6c

R. (Isaiah 61:10) With delight I rejoice in the Lord.
Though I trusted in your mercy,
let my heart rejoice in your salvation.
R. With delight I rejoice in the Lord.
Let me sing of the LORD, “He has been good to me.”
R. With delight I rejoice in the Lord.

Gospel: Matthew 1:1-16, 18-23

The Book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ,
the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Abraham became the father of Isaac,
Isaac the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers.
Judah became the father of Perez and Zerah,
whose mother was Tamar.
Perez became the father of Hezron,
Hezron the father of Ram,
Ram the father of Amminadab.
Amminadab became the father of Nahshon,
Nahshon the father of Salmon,
Salmon the father of Boaz,
whose mother was Rahab.
Boaz became the father of Obed,
whose mother was Ruth.
Obed became the father of Jesse,
Jesse the father of David the king.

David became the father of Solomon,
whose mother had been the wife of Uriah.
Solomon became the father of Rehoboam,
Rehoboam the father of Abijah,
Abijah the father of Asaph.
Asaph became the father of Jehoshaphat,
Jehoshaphat the father of Joram,
Joram the father of Uzziah.
Uzziah became the father of Jotham,
Jotham the father of Ahaz,
Ahaz the father of Hezekiah.
Hezekiah became the father of Manasseh,
Manasseh the father of Amos,
Amos the father of Josiah.
Josiah became the father of Jechoniah and his brothers
at the time of the Babylonian exile.

After the Babylonian exile,
Jechoniah became the father of Shealtiel,
Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,
Zerubbabel the father of Abiud.
Abiud became the father of Eliakim,
Eliakim the father of Azor,
Azor the father of Zadok.
Zadok became the father of Achim,
Achim the father of Eliud,
Eliud the father of Eleazar.
Eleazar became the father of Matthan,
Matthan the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary.
Of her was born Jesus who is called the Christ.

Now this is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about.
When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph,
but before they lived together,
she was found with child through the Holy Spirit.
Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man,
yet unwilling to expose her to shame,
decided to divorce her quietly.
Such was his intention when, behold,
the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,
“Joseph, son of David,
do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.
For it is through the Holy Spirit
that this child has been conceived in her.
She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus,
because he will save his people from their sins.”
All this took place to fulfill
what the Lord had said through the prophet:

Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,

which means “God is with us.”

NAB

Now this is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about.

God is the best storyteller. Like any good Father, the story He’s been telling is one full of action, adventure, drama and intrigue. In today’s Gospel, we get the shorthand version of it when we read the genealogy of Jesus. Saint Matthew recaps generations of major players in the grand story of our salvation, culminating with the birth of Christ.

The story picks up in a nowhere village and stars a young Hebrew virgin and her betrothed the future Saint Joseph. Admist all the stories of the men and women who cooperated with the Divine Author, hers is the most mysterious, the most beautiful. It is in the Blessed Virgin Mary’s story—Mary’s yes—that God’s great story reaches its crescendo.

Mary’s life was exceptional because she lived in utter surrender to the will of the Father. She told God’s story with her life. His story was her story.

The same invitation is being extended to us today. Will we surrender our imagined storyline to a God who is immensely creative with His? A Father who uses the most unlikely of characters and impossible circumstances in the course of an ordinary life to tell a far greater story than the one we line up for ourselves?

I used to be afraid of that story, the one I naively believed God would tell if I gave Him the okay to have His way in my life. But the closer I come to Him, the more concretely I discover that my fears are unfounded. As I spend time with Jesus in Adoration, or sit on the lap of the God the Father in imaginative prayer, or glimpse the action of the Holy Spirit in my everyday life, I learn that He can be trusted. And I know that the story He’s waiting to tell with my life will be infinitely more than the one I can arrange for myself.

Will we surrender our imagined storyline to a God who is immensely creative with His?Click to tweet

Using your Catholic imagination, sit with Jesus and show Him your story—past memories, present needs and future hopes. Ask Him to redeem each of them as they come and to help you trust Him with your story.

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Beth Davis is a lover of Jesus, an aunt to five beautiful humans, and a full time youth minister in Flagstaff, Arizona. She is passionate about winning the hearts of young people for Jesus through discipleship. You can find out more about her here.