5 Minutes with Jesus is a daily devotional series for people in the midst of real life, whether facing anxiety, grief, questions of purpose, or simply needing encouragement and connection. Hosted by Sheila Walsh, each five-minute episode offers Biblical truth, honest reflections on faith and emotions, and closes with a moment of prayer.
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| Sheila Walsh: Heaven’s Family | 5 Minutes with Jesus | December 24, 2025
- As we celebrate the birth of christ,
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- We celebrate the hope of every one of us.
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- No matter our family history or our own back story.
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- The black sheep used and abused.
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- The broken and the hopeless.
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- All are welcome to the table.
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- We are covered by christ's righteousness
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- And given a new name.
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- Child of the king.
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- Our christmas wedding almost didn't happen.
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- The problem had started at the church
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- The day before the event.
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- We would be married in a beautiful old church,
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- Saint matthews, in downtown charleston,
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- And both of our families were there for the rehearsal.
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- Ian, my brother in law, would walk
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- My mom and barry's mom down the aisle,
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- Dressed in his traditional scottish kilt as a bagpipe
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- Player, serenaded them in a way, that part went seamlessly.
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- My nephews, david and john were young
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- And tired, having just flown in from scotland.
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- Seemed to them that they had two choices.
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- Fall asleep on a pew,
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- Or wake themselves up by running around the church crying out
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- As if they were extras in the movie braveheart.
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- And they went with the latter.
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- Well, barry was not amused.
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- He tried to kind of wrangle them
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- In which they thought was funny,
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- And only added fuel to their highland fling.
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- Then barry and i got into it.
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- You need to tell them to be quiet, he said.
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- This is a church. they should be respectful.
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- But in my most pious tone, i reminded him of this truth
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- From scripture.
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- Jesus said, suffer the little children to come unto me.
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- Yeah, but he didn't tell them to do battle in the lord's house.
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- He responded, well, it went on from there.
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- Barry's dad sat down with his head
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- In his hands, while his mum said she thought she might faint.
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- It was a three ring circus.
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- Barry was mad with me for not supporting him,
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- And i was mad with him for being cross with my nephews.
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- By the time he and i were driving to the rehearsal dinner,
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- We weren't even talking.
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- We pulled up behind us mom and dad's car,
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- But barry refused to get out.
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- I'm not going. and he said, we have to go.
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- And i said, it's our rehearsal dinner.
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- All my family and friends have flown in from scotland.
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- And your mum's booked an opera singer.
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- After a few moments of silence,
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- We looked at each other and burst out laughing.
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- Family?
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- Yeah, well, god's word is full of stories.
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- Stories of families just like yours and mine.
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- Matthew begins his gospel with the genealogy of christ.
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- A passage not often read in church included it not as filler
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- Because the manuscript was short,
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- But to make a bold, outrageous statement to his audience.
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- This is a record of the ancestors of jesus
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- The messiah, a descendant of david and of abraham.
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- Well, to matthew's jewish audience,
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- They couldn't have been a more audacious or offensive claim.
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- This itinerant rabbi from nazareth,
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- Who'd been arrested, tried and executed for blasphemy,
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- Was a direct
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- Descendant of their greatest king, david, and of abraham,
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- A pagan man brought out of obscure city
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- And into covenant with almighty god.
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- The old testament prophets had written
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- Of someone who had come to deliver
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- God's people,
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- Although they would never see him with their own eyes.
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- They prophesied that he was on the way.
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- Well, matthew's opening declaration couldn't be clearer.
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- We have waited for generations.
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- We have waited and now is here.
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- From abraham to jesus, matthew names
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- Many men who had questionable pasts,
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- But then includes the unthinkable.
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- The names of four women.
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- Women were never included in family genealogies.
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- In those days,
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- Only men were listed as the head of each household.
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- Women had little value in the culture of that time.
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- New testament scholar michael green writes that every jewish
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- Man's prayer each morning was one of gratitude.
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- He was not born a slave or a gentile or a woman.
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- The birth of jesus changed everything for everyone.
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- The outcast was welcomed in.
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- Those with little value were given a seat at the table.
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- Those with a past were given a future.
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- The fact that these four women were included in the line of
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- Christ was a door thrown open to anyone,
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- Literally anyone, who would come and kneel at his feet.
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- Each of the four women that matthew includes came
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- With a shocking backstory.
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- You probably remember tamar.
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- Her husband had died and she was desperate for a child.
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- The elder brother in law, according to jewish custom,
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- Should have married her
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- To carry on his brother's life, but he refused
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- To have a child with her.
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- The other son was too young.
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- So tamar tricked her father
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- In law judah into sleeping with her.
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- She disguised herself as a prostitute
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- And he fell for her trap.
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- When judah
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- Heard that his widowed daughter in law was pregnant,
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- He determined to have a put to death.
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- And tamar revealed the truth to him.
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- He was the father.
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- Those are the kind of family stories you keep in the closet
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- And not with jesus.
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- Then there's rahab, a prostitute who lived in jericho.
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- We don't know much about her
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- Story or why she ended up living this particular lifestyle,
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- Because she took a risk to help two israelite spies. but
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- She and her family were spared when jericho was destroyed.
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- And remember bathsheba.
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- David saw her bathing on the rooftop and called for her.
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- And when you're summoned by the king in those days,
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- You don't much choice but to comply.
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- We know that bathsheba's husband,
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- Uriah, was part of david's special forces.
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- He was fiercely loyal, a trusted man.
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- But then he was killed to cover david's sin.
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- King david stained bathsheba's life,
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- But christ owned her.
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- And then ruth.
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- This might be the most surprising
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- Name of all in matthew's list.
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- She was from the country of moab,
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- The sworn enemies of israel.
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- When ruth's husband died, she left moab to accompany
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- Naomi, her widowed mother in law, back to israel.
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- She refused to abandon naomi.
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- Ruth married boaz.
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- And in doing so,
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- She became the great grandmother of king david.
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- As we celebrate the birth of christ,
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- We celebrate the hope of every one of us,
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- No matter our family history or our own backstory.
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- The black sheep used and abused the broken and the hopeless.
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- All are welcome to the table.
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- We are covered by christ's righteousness
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- And given a new name.
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- Child of the king, we pray for you,
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- Lord, for glorious news that is that
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- You're not looking for the perfect.
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- But you came and you are perfect.
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- And you invite us to come as we are.
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- Lord, sometimes all we see are the things in our life
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- That are not good.
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- The things the places where we fall
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- And the places where we fail.
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- I want to thank you that when our father looks at
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- Us, he sees your righteousness.
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- And when you cried out, it is finished on the cross.
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- You were saying, bill paid in full.
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- Thank you that we have been grafted
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- Into your family, and because of you we belong in jesus name.
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- Amen.
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