The painstaking detail of getting to Christmas …

My parents limited the TV viewing of their eight children, but there were a few shows we kids liked to watch when we could.

One was an oldie called, “Bewitched.” My dad didn’t like us watching that show because of the witches in it, but as a boy, I was intrigued with what life might be like if you could make things happen by just a wiggle of your nose! That’s how Samantha, the star of the show who was a “good” witch, magically made things happen — by wiggling her nose.

Imagine if you could make the house clean, create a cooked dinner, do the laundry, wash the car, mow the lawn … all by just wiggling your nose. Sounds fantastic!

That’s why I never understood the character of Darrin, who played Samantha’s husband, who didn’t want his wife making things happen by wiggling her nose; he wanted them to live a normal life without the use of magic. As a kid, it didn’t make any sense to me why someone would want to painstakingly do things by sweating the details when something could be done instantaneously.

Sometimes I think we have similar thoughts about God.

God is not a witch, but He is the only all-powerful being. The world we live on, and everything in it, came into being by God simply speaking them into existence. God can make anything happen instantly … but He routinely chooses not to.

Take Christmas, for example.

It was God’s desire to reconcile humanity to Himself after we broke our relationship with Him because of our sin. But He didn’t instantly make that happen. Instead, God painstakingly executed a plan that would take generations of people just to begin. That’s what we read about in Matthew 1 as we begin the story of Christmas …

“This is a record of the ancestors of Jesus the Messiah, a descendant of David and of Abraham:

Abraham was the father of Isaac.
Isaac was the father of Jacob.
Jacob was the father of Judah and his brothers.
Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah (whose mother was Tamar).
Perez was the father of Hezron.
Hezron was the father of Ram.
Ram was the father of Amminadab.
Amminadab was the father of Nahshon.
Nahshon was the father of Salmon.
Salmon was the father of Boaz (whose mother was Rahab).
Boaz was the father of Obed (whose mother was Ruth).
Obed was the father of Jesse.
Jesse was the father of King David.
David was the father of Solomon (whose mother was Bathsheba, the widow of Uriah).
Solomon was the father of Rehoboam.
Rehoboam was the father of Abijah.
Abijah was the father of Asa.
Asa was the father of Jehoshaphat.
Jehoshaphat was the father of Jehoram.
Jehoram was the father of Uzziah.
Uzziah was the father of Jotham.
Jotham was the father of Ahaz.
Ahaz was the father of Hezekiah.
Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh.
Manasseh was the father of Amon.
Amon was the father of Josiah.
Josiah was the father of Jehoiachin and his brothers (born at the time of the exile to Babylon).
After the Babylonian exile:
Jehoiachin was the father of Shealtiel.
Shealtiel was the father of Zerubbabel.
Zerubbabel was the father of Abiud.
Abiud was the father of Eliakim.
Eliakim was the father of Azor.
Azor was the father of Zadok.
Zadok was the father of Akim.
Akim was the father of Eliud.
Eliud was the father of Eleazar.
Eleazar was the father of Matthan.
Matthan was the father of Jacob.
Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary.
Mary gave birth to Jesus, who is called the Messiah.

All those listed above include fourteen generations from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the Babylonian exile, and fourteen from the Babylonian exile to the Messiah. This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit,” Matthew 1:1-18.

God is all-powerful, perfect, and patient, a combination we weak, imperfect, and impatient people sometimes struggle to understand. Sometimes our waiting on God feels a little like the boy who was standing at the end of an escalator in a large department store. A sales lady spotted him and inquired, “Son, are you lost?”

“No ma’am,” he responded, “I’m waiting for my chewing gum to come back.”

The truth is, when you don’t wiggle your nose, when you don’t make things happen instantly, then details take time. God doesn’t work by abbreviating time, but in the fullness of it …

“But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons,” Galatians 4:4-5 (NASB).

In reconciling us to Himself, we want God to transform us instantly, to be done with it now so we can live as fully transformed people for the rest of our lives. Instead, God saves us now, but uses the the breadth of our lifetimes to transform us.

Just as He had a perfect plan for redemption that would be perfectly executed over time, God is molding and shaping us into the likeness of His Son, something He will do over time.

Christmas reveals to us that God is powerful, perfect, and patient. Let that encourage you to be patient with Him as He works His will and His good pleasure in your life.

“And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns,” Philippians 1:6.

Scotty