So you think your family's messed up?

We are into the real Christmas story again this week, with "I'll be home for Christmas" 2: Making Family Count.

There's a lot to learn out of the family Jesus chose:

1. Greatness can come out of all kinds of wreckage of family life. There was a lot of dysfunctionality in the family history Jesus chose to come to the earth in. But somebody stood up, reached for character and greatness, and chose not to allow the labels of the past to define the present.

2. Great leaders of great families know their rights, but tend toward mercy. Joseph knew it was his right to end the engagement when he heard that Mary was pregnant and not by him. But while he could end it, he didn't. He tended toward mercy when he had the chance, and reaped the rewards that can only come when mercy pays off.

3. They stepped into glory, by hearing God's voice. Joseph and Mary were asked to do things that no one else had ever done, were not well thought of, and seemed impossible. But by hearing His voice when he spoke, they stepped into the kind of history that is only made when somebody emerges from the bland landscape of everyday humanity and becomes great by doing what God called him to do.