How do you feel about the state of the world right now? It can be depressing to look around us because it seems as though things are just getting worse, getting darker. The story of the coming of Jesus is a story of the victory of God over the best efforts of the kingdom of darkness to overthrow the rule of God on the earth. The gospel of Matthew begins with a genealogy that may seem boring and irrelevant on the surface, but is pregnant with meaning about the purposes and power of God for us even today. Through this genealogy, Matthew is reminding us of the victory of God through every generation and that God is still overcoming the darkness.