courtesy of user: 350z33 at en.wikipedia.org

According to The Washington Post, the last time the winter solstice occurred on the same day as a lunar eclipse was 1638, 372 years ago.  Their alignment will not occur again until 2094.  Unless I live to be 136 years old, this is the last one I’ll see.

What happens between astronomical entities is seldom remembered.  What happens between people can bear eternal consequences.  In my blogs on this Christmas week we’re considering the “outlaws for in-laws” which Jesus chose to be his ancestors.  Yesterday we remembered the story of Tamar.  Tonight consider this entry in the record: “David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife” (Matthew 1:6).

2 Samuel 11 tells the story.  It was “the time when kings go off to war,” but David stayed home (v. 1).  If he had been where he should have been, the most infamous event of his life and reign would not have occurred.  Instead he saw Bathsheba bathing and had an affair with her.  She became pregnant.  David arranged for her husband to be killed in battle so he could take the widow into his palace, covering up their affair.  But God told Nathan the prophet, who confronted David.  Thirty centuries later, the world still remembers.

Jesus nonetheless chose to be the “son of David” (Matthew 1:1).  He chose the son of David and Bathsheba to be his ancestor.  God redeems all he allows, and uses anyone who is willing to be used.  Nothing you have done in the past can keep God from using you in the present.  Why do you need that reminder today?