MARY: HOW TO RAISE BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTERS
The other day while standing in one of those endless lines at the supermarket my eyes caught the following headlines on a newspaper, “World’s most beautiful woman hospitalized”. Quickly whipping out my cell phone I called Bonnie and immediately knew it was a false story . . . actually, it was about Elizabeth Taylor married countless times, unhappy, overweight, and in ill health. The world probably has no better candidate for that role. But God does.
This morning may I introduce again the beautiful woman of God’s Word? MARY, the mother of James and Jesus! – Who is presented as the most honored woman in the Bible? Say it with me – MARY – Who was chosen out of all the women in the whole world to raise God’s Son? MARY – Who is the greatest living, breathing example of Proverbs 31 in ordinary everyday life? MARY Without exception who is probably the most beloved and best-known woman in the world? MARY
Luke 3:23 gives us an unusual insight. It appears to some scholars that this is because Matthew traces the legal descent of the house of David using only heirs to the throne, while Luke traces the complete line of Joseph to David. A more likely explanation, however, is that Matthew follows the line of Joseph (Jesus’ legal father), while Luke emphasizes that of Mary (Jesus’ blood relative). Although tracing a genealogy through the mother’s side was unusual, so was the virgin birth. Luke’s explanation here that Jesus was the son of Joseph, “so it was thought” (v. 23), brings to mind his explicit virgin birth statement (1:34-35) and suggests the importance of the role of Mary in Jesus’ genealogy.
God is very interested in your beauty this morning. Did you check to see if you were beautiful before you came? Beautiful to God is what I mean!