When I read the name of someone I love in an affirming headline, I get excited, don’t you? That is how I feel about the women listed in the genealogy of Christ: Look! They are there! I say this especially because in ancient Israel one’s genealogy was one’s résumé, and women were never part of that important record. These women, however, were so important to God that they would not be ignored by Matthew.

Both women were generally at the mercy of the men in their lives, but both were rescued from their pit of despair, redeemed by God, and entrusted by Him with His heritage. Tamar was an Aramean Gentile (a non-Jew), taken by marriage into the Abrahamic family but denied her maternal right by Judah. Upon gaining it by trickery against Judah, she was blessed by God to bear Perez, meaning “breakthrough,” as Tamar was noted by Judah himself as being “more righteous than I” (Genesis 38:26).

Rahab, a prostitute and a Gentile, was used by God to help bring victory to Israel as the walls fell down around Jericho. She later gave birth to Boaz, the noted Kinsman Redeemer in the book of Ruth.

Have you ever felt your life was worthless? That is how Tamar felt; that’s how Rahab felt—until they each entrusted themselves to the Living God in their own despairing circumstances. Your life, like theirs, stands in importance to Him. He has not overlooked you. Recognize yourself in these headlines, and see His promise for you, as it was for them, is in the Messiah, the Christ.