I didn’t plan on it. Honestly. I know it’s been a while since I’ve been around here, my favorite little writing corner with you, and I have some catching up to do. Soon, I hope.

It’s just that I found myself needing to stay focused on a few things this summer. For one, that second book is coming out. Pre-orders will be mailed out on Monday the publisher told me yesterday, and very soon it will be available for purchase. I’ve also been wrapped up in what feels like my greatest challenge yet. 

Harder even than becoming a writer at…let’s see, it seems I’m getting worse at math. But that’s a good thing because how old am I…?  I published my first book after 50. You can do the math on the second.

Even harder than starting ballet classes at 17, and, later, leaving theatre to become a dancer, of all things.

What’s been more challenging than either of those? Well, read on…

Saturday morning, here in Milwaukee, predicted rain had postponed the Air Show at the Lake Front (thank goodness…it was so loud, we’d duck outside and inside our house.) Fannie, the big red dog, took it okay, but Mary, the sassy cat, went into hiding.

Tour de France was on TV downstairs as I headed upstairs. “Going up to study for your calling?” Todd asked before I reached the steps. And just then, the feeling returned that I’d had in the car yesterday morning on my way to the study—a warm glow of a feeling.

I’ve been teaching this summer. Five weeks with the five unlikely women in Jesus’ genealogy listed in the gospel of Matthew, Chapter 1 and I’m a most unlikely woman to be teaching a Bible study.

Driving to the study yesterday, I had a moment when I wondered, had I really been called to do this? It’s a great privilege to open up the Bible with others and to hear from God. It’s right up there with giving birth to my son. Both are miracles. And what I’ve discovered (recovering perfectionist, performer, pleaser that I am) is freedom. My job is to study, write, grow, then let go. Decrease. So Christ’s Spirit can flow and increase.

So with my mind, heart, and a manilla folder full of all I’d come to learn about Bathsheba, my doubts and fears flew out the window. I was excited to get to the study.

Bathsheba is mentioned as “Uriah’s wife” in the list, maybe so we don’t forget David murdered Uriah to take Bathsheba as his wife (one of at least eight and that doesn’t include the concubines.) You might say that David was unlikely, too—womanizer, adulterer, murderer that he was, and all the rest of the baggage that comes with that.

It may be hard for some of us to grab hold of why David is referred to as “a man after God’s own heart”. As my friend Annie said on the way out the door, I just don’t see how he can be a man after God’s own heart!”

Do have trouble with that, too?

I’ll answer with a question. Isn’t it exactly the point…?

Isn’t that what the Gospel offers us? All these unlikely men and women fit right in with Jesus’ ministry, which, at that time, was still ten centuries down the road from our story. He came for “those who need a physician,” He said Himself, not for those who are already “righteous”. 

Who doesn’t need a good physician? 

It may be hard for some to accept that women are even listed in Jesus’ lineage in Matthew at all. They aren’t in Luke. The first woman in the list and in my study, Tamar, a Canaanite, disguised herself as a prostitute and seduced her father-in-law Judah to get a son out of him. The second woman in Jesus’ lineage, Rahab, is another Canaanite and a real prostitute. Some, I’ve read, don’t believe that she should even be there. As if there’s been some sort of mistake. 

Isn’t Matthew’s genealogy showing us that the story of Jesus included then and still does, the deceivers, the cunning, the afflicted and inflicted, the weak-willed, the misunderstood and the lesser known? Who are those mentioned in that final 3rd section of the three lists of fourteen generations, like Jeconiah, Shealitiel, and Eliakim? I’ve spent a fair amount of time looking up pronunciations. And that can be as confusing as the stories themselves.

This is where the study rests directly on us, on me: with Grace.

God sees us in our messes and need. He saw Bathsheba and David, like he saw Hagar, and like He sees you and me. He doesn’t go around any of it, He goes through it. God answered David and he received His mercy. Read Psalm 51. Receiving Gods mercy is what makes the difference and that’s where this study came full circle for me.

It doesn’t come without consequences or pain and it surely didn’t for either David or Bathsheba, or for God the Father. The genealogy of Grace leads us to His own Son, Jesus Christ, who was forsaken for us, so we never would be, so we, too, can be in the family—a long, long line of us unlikely sorts, who come to understand our own brokenness, our need for a Savior and can pray like David, Have mercy on me (us), Oh God, according to your unfailing love. Ps 51:1

We are a part of the amazing lineage of Christ. Chosen. Called. Called maybe to do your first Bible study in the second act of your life (or is this the third?)

Circling back to where I started, on my way upstairs this morning, I picked up the biggest book I’ve ever owned. So big, in fact, that when our postal carrier delivered it, Todd yelled, “Honey! What did you order now?! Poor Evan!” (Our postman.)

I apologized.

Evan said, “That’s okay.”

We love Evan. Fannie especially. He brings treats.

So, this morning, with that huge book in my arms, I walked back into the kitchen and said, “Sweetie, look!”

“What?” He turned his head from the TV to me.

“You can’t say I don’t take my new calling seriously!”

He shook his head and cracked a smile.

It honestly feels like God has been preparing me for this new challenge my whole life. And as the title of my new book suggests, I’m just along for the ride!

Thank you for reading.

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Psalm 51:10