In a land where arranged marriages are still the norm, a king searched for a wife for his only, dearly loved son, the son who would inherit the kingdom and all that the father owned.

Tamara came to his attention, a beautiful woman - but her beauty had hardened into an iciness designed to protect herself from hurt. The king’s advisors pointed out that Tamara had been married - and widowed - twice and that Tamara’s efforts to survive as a penniless, uneducated woman had led to disgrace. But the king wept at his advisors’ judgments and looked into Tamara’s eyes in so caring a way that the ice dissolved into tears.

The advisors were shocked when they saw the king speaking to Rae, a “party girl,” a woman known for her promiscuity. All her life Rae had lived in the shadow of the city walls, the walls that encircled great darkness and evil. But the king wept at the darkness and struck down the walls. Then he led Rae out of the shadows, out of the city, into the light.

In the kingdom’s capital lived a woman named Sheba, a woman surrounded by scandal. But the king knew it had all begun when Sheba was victimized by the lust of a former ruler. The king wept again at the failure of his leadership, and spoke to Sheba with gentle words: I will create in you a clean heart, and I will renew a right spirit within you. I will restore to you the joy you once knew. And the woman’s beauty of spirit shone as the noonday sun.

Dwelling in the fields outside the city, dependent on the grain she found in the fields, was a young refugee woman whom people began to call “friend.” More than anything else this woman desired to see the king, because the fame of his gentleness and kindness had spread even to her far country. Turning her back to the past and her face to the future, she supported her widowed mother-in-love in her journey to the land of the king, saying: I will go where you go, I will live where you live. Your people will be my people, and your king will be my king. And while this friend waited to see the king, she cared for her mother-in-love.

In a small town close to the city, a teenager named Marie lived in an attitude of expectancy. Although she had no way to come before the king, she had filled out an application in which she offered her life to him. Others had warned Marie that with great honor comes great responsibility. Although that felt frightening at times, Marie’s heart was open to whatever he might ask of her, because she trusted the heart of the king.

Disgrace became grace. Darkness became light. Victimization became victory. Homelessness became home. And an open heart prepared a teenage girl for the greatest honor a woman could know.

These are the stories of the five women mentioned in Matthew 1, the five women in the family tree of Jesus Christ, the Son of the King. Their names are Tamar, Rahab, Bathsheba, Ruth and Mary.

Today, the King weeps with you. He longs to give you His gift of grace, to lead you from the city of sin, where the other family members anxiously await your coming. Will you look into the face of the Father-King?