Have you ever wondered what if some turn of events had happened differently in history, how it might have affected things in the present? We may muse over the “what if” possibilities, yet for some reason it happened just as it did. Yet, we may still wonder how close things might have come to having a completely different outcome? This is portrayed in the Christmas classic “It’s A Wonderful Life” and as Max in the Get Smart sitcom said, “missed it by that much!”

As Christians, we believe in the Sovereignty of God in all things. There is no random molecule in the universe. All things happen in accordance with His will, purpose (Eph. 1:11), and His perfect timing in all things – good or bad.

As we come to Christmas, we read in Galatians 4:4 “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law.”
God’s timing is always perfect. But what if something had happened differently in history, how would that have affected the timing, or even the occurrence of that first Christmas? As we look at each of the names in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1:1-17, we realize how many potential mishaps could have happened to either stop Christmas from happening or kept Jesus the Messiah from being linked to his great grandfather King David (2 Samuel 7:16).

What if Perez was never born to Judah and Tamar (Genesis 38:29; Ruth 4:12; Matthew 1;3)? What if Rahab had died in Jericho and never met Solmon and had Boaz (Joshua 6:25; Hebrews 11:31; Matthew 1:5)? What if Ruth would never have gleaned in the field and met Boaz (Ruth 2:3-5)? What if Jehoshaphat would have been shot by a ‘not so random’ arrow instead of Ahab (1 Kings 22:32-34)? What if Jehosheba, the sister of Ahaziah, while Queen Athaliah was destroying all the royal offspring, had not hid Joash from the grip of death (2 Kings 11:1-3)? Just think of the possibilities of error of hundreds of years of genealogies – any one of them could have stopped Christmas from coming.

Why didn’t it happen differently? Because God is Sovereign over all and the timing of Christmas was irrevocable. Jesus came through the right people at the right time and He was born the Savior. Not even the Grinch could keep Christmas from coming, and contrary to Veggie Tales, Christmas was not saved by a toy – but by a person – the Lord Jesus Christ.