As I looked over the names in Jesus' genealogy this morning, I recognized the ones whose lives are painted with mistakes:
Abraham. father of illegitimate Ishmael
Jacob, the deceiver
Perez, incestuous son of Judah and Tamar
Bathsheba, mother of Solomon (formerly the wife of Uriah, who David had killed).
But the one who is so often mentioned because of her title-prostitute-jumps from the page for a different reason today.
Though I love the story in Joshua of this harlot who rescues the spies of Israel, it's what she passed on to her son that I notice now (I'm sure my close relationship to my own son sparked this).
Her son's name is Boaz, and he becomes husband to Ruth; a kinsmen redeemer.
So much of Ruth's story is just that...Ruth's story. But I know that her story was really a result of Boaz's story, and Rahab's story.
Boaz knew about redemption because he knew his mother's story, and I'm almost certain she told it more than once to her listening son.
Boaz had bought Ruth for himself, because her husband had died and her inheritance would soon be lost to her and her former mother-in-law unless someone stepped up to save them.
Boaz would be that someone.
He would redeem the one who had been rejected by another relative, and in doing so, he would set the course for my Redeemer.
Seeing his name after Rahab's today reminded me that, as a mother, we all have to continue to tell our story to our children, so that they, too, will live a redeeming life; so that they will look at the ones in God's field who also need a Redeemer.
I pray that both of my children will raise up the name of Jesus-the One who redeems the whole world-so that the Ruth's of this world will find their value in Him.
I don't think Rahab said, "The LORD is God, in heaven above and on the earth underneath"only once; I think she said it a lot.
She had been a prostitute, and now she was a wife and mother.
She had been a grain of wheat among a field of tares, probably wondering if she would be uprooted before she ever got the chance to know a Savior.
And because God's eyes roamed to and fro throughout the whole earth, searching for that one whose heart was completely His,...the grain remained and bore fruit, and her name would forever be etched in God's story.
Rahab was the mother of a Kinsmen Redeemer...and His name is Jesus.
