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woman of the night into a woman of the court —a princess and a wife of a Jewish prince, Salmon.
    Their family line is furthered with a son —a son who would be the kinsman-redeemer of another foreign woman: a son named Boaz. The mother of Boaz is this Rahab; the mother-in-law of Ruth is this Rahab; thegreat-grandmother of the great King David is this Rahab. This Rahab, who is one of the women named in Scripture in the line that leads straight to this Jesus —that one thread everything’s hanging on.
    The great-grandmother of Christ many times removed —former prostitute, pagan, and profligate —Rahab finds herself the only other woman besides Sarah to be noted in the heroes’ hall of faith. Rahab, right there beside the fathers of the faith —Abraham, Jacob, Isaac, Moses, and Noah: “By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace” (Hebrews 11:31, KJV).
    Great faith is the greatest equalizer, the greatest eraser, and the greatest definer.
    By faith, Rahab stands as “a blessed example both of the sovereignty of God’s grace and of its power,” writes the Puritan theologian John Owen. “Nobody, no sin, should lead to despair when the cure of God’s sovereign, almighty grace is engaged.” [13]
    Nobody and no situation —no sin, no mess, no decision —meets the diagnosis of despair. Because there’s God’s cure of amazing grace.
    No personal choice that muddied your life can ever trump the divine choice to wash your life clean.
    No situation is more hopeless than your Savior is graceful.
    That scarlet cord Rahab threw out that window?
    In Hebrew, that cord is a tikvah .
    The same word in Hebrew that means “hope.”
    You think about that as you tie string around Christmas gifts.
    How strong a cord seems —until your life slips off the edge of a cliff and you lunge for something to hold on to.
    One braid of fibers enough to hold you —that’s your literal only hope.
    You know it with startling clarity in that moment —how there’s only a singular cord in this knotted mess of a world worth reaching for. It’s dangling right there from our impossible tangle, and it’s the one hope you need to reach for this Advent.
    That scarlet lifeline of Christ.

    Do just one thing today that would be venturing big for God (share the gospel, make a hard phone call, do one thing you are scared to do but know Jesus is calling you to). Hold on to God, and do that one big thing by faith! Our God is bigger!

    God is coming! God is coming! All the element we swim in, this existence, echoes ahead the advent. God is coming! Can you feel it?
    WALTER WANGERIN JR.

    Do you know what it’s like to have a bad reputation? What does it mean to you that God’s grace is enough to cover any kind of a past?
    Rahab was remembered for her faith. What would you want to be remembered for?
    Take time to thank Jesus for being your scarlet rope of salvation.

Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.
    RUTH 1:16

    A severe famine came upon the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah left his home and went to live in the country of Moab, taking his wife and two sons with him. . . . Then Elimelech died, and Naomi was left with her two sons. . . . But about ten years later, both Mahlon and Kilion died. This left Naomi alone, without her two sons or her husband.
    Then Naomi heard in Moab that the LORD had blessed his people in Judah by giving them good crops again. So Naomi and her daughters-in-law got ready to leave Moab to return to her homeland. . . .
    But on the way, Naomi said to her two daughters- in-law, “Go back to your mothers’ homes. . . .”
    “No,” they said. “We want to go with you to your people.”
    But Naomi replied, “Why should you go on with me? . . . Things are far more bitter for me than for you, because the LORD himself has raised his fist against me.” . . .
    But Ruth clung tightly to Naomi. “Look,” Naomi