Last night as I lay awake I was thinking about this series of blog entries that in some way involve God. I thought about how much God wants creatures that love him that he can love in return and share the kindness of his grace with. I thought about the importance of God’s Son in making it possible for this to happen. And then for some reason I thought about the genealogy of Jesus that is found in the first chapter of Matthew.
The genealogy begins with Abraham and after 42 generations it ends with Jesus being born. Most people, when reading Matthew, skip over the genealogy because they find it rather boring. But if you take time to carefully read it you will notice there are five women listed there. They are Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, the wife of Uriah [Bathsheba], and Mary. Who are these women and why did God single them out? What is written about them in the Old Testament that we might find interesting and maybe learn something that might help us better understand God? I want to locate their stories and consider what I might write and maybe I will write a series of five entries about these women in the near future.
In view of my past blog entries about God and the possibility of this future series, some may be wondering why the change of emphasis. In the past when I returned from my time in China I stopped posting entries until I returned on the next trip. In the past these entries were primarily for the purpose of keeping my support team update on my time in China. Since I removed the blog password and since Google blogs are now open to Chinese, I am finding a growing number of readers in China. Most of them are English speakers, but I know of some who use Google translate to convert my entries to Chinese. These readers are interested in American culture, which includes some information about our western religion called Christianity. I believe this added emphasis in the blog reflects a change with me. I used to be part of a western community when in China, but on my last trip I felt strongly that God was directing me to identify with the Chinese community by actually living with a Chinese family. When I return on my next trip my relationships will be nearly 100% with Chinese people. I believe God has used these past four years to prepare me for this phase of my adventure.
