%20(1).png)
Unexpected Grace: Getting Honest
- Free Church
- 21 hours ago
- 4 min read
Unexpected Grace: Getting Honest | Gareth Nicholson | 30 November 2025
When God Meets Our Hidden Skeletons
Do you have any skeletons hiding in your family closet? Stories you’d rather people didn’t know about? Or maybe - if your family seems spotless, you’ve got a few skeletons tucked away in your own.
We spend an astonishing amount of time managing shame, hiding our failures, and maintaining the illusion that we have it “all together.” But the truth is this:
When God’s extraordinary grace collides with ordinary broken people, unexpected things happen.
This Christmas series, Unexpected Grace, invites us to peel back the layers we hide behind and see the heart of the gospel: a God who steps into human brokenness - not to shame us, but to redeem us.
The Story Beneath the Story of Christmas
The Bible isn’t a rulebook. It’s the greatest love story ever told - between God and His people.
It begins with unity, authority, and tranquillity in the Garden of Eden. Things were tov - good, whole, functioning as they should. And it ends in Revelation with these three restored.
But in between? Human rebellion fractures everything. Broken relationships, distorted authority, disrupted peace-and yes, skeletons in the closet.
Throughout the Old Testament, we meet figures like Abraham and David-good, faithful people, yet unable to restore what was lost. Each had flaws, failures, and shadows.
So God Himself steps into the story through Jesus Christ. This is what Christmas celebrates: God becoming human to restore unity, reclaim authority, and rebuild tranquillity.
A Family Tree Full of Scandals
Matthew begins his Gospel with the genealogy of Jesus. But instead of sanitising it, he highlights some of the messiest people in the family line.
People with pasts. People with secrets. People who made decisions they’d rather forget.
Among them is the shocking story of Judah and Tamar - a story filled with grief, deception, abandonment, injustice, and scandal. And yet, these two are intentionally included in Jesus’ lineage.
Why? To show us that God’s grace works through imperfect people, not around them.
Judah: A Man Who Ran, Hid, Numbed, and Judged
Before his transformation, Judah does what so many of us do:
1. He hides. He lies to his father about Joseph’s fate. He hides the truth, hides his emotions, hides the pain.
2. He runs . When grief and guilt become too heavy, he leaves home instead of facing it.
3. He numbs. He distracts himself with busyness, parties, and pleasure - anything to avoid dealing with his internal turmoil.
4. He judges. Condemning Tamar for what he thinks is immorality, he deflects attention from his own brokenness.
Sound familiar?
We hide. We run. We numb. We point fingers.
All in an effort to maintain a fragile façade of togetherness.
The Turning Point: “She is more righteous than I.”
Everything changes when Tamar reveals the signet ring and staff - the proof that the child she carries is Judah’s.
In a single moment, Judah confronts the truth:
“She is more righteous than I.”
Humility. Honesty. Vulnerability.
This is where transformation begins - not in perfection, but in acknowledgement. Judah stops running and starts repenting. And grace rushes into that open space like a waterfall.
From that moment on, his life changes trajectory. He becomes a man who protects, leads, and even offers his life for his brothers.
What Grace Really Does
Grace doesn’t ignore sin. Grace transforms sinners.
It doesn’t sweep your past under a rug; it rewrites your story.
Psalm 32 describes this beautifully:
“Blessed is the one whose sin is forgiven.”
“When I kept silent, my bones wasted away.”
“But I acknowledged my sin… and You forgave.”
Hiding drains us. Confession frees us. Grace restores us.
Your skeletons aren’t too dark for God. Your failures aren’t too deep. Your past isn’t too messy.
The moment you acknowledge your brokenness is the moment grace begins its work.
Your Name Belongs in His Story
Just like Judah and Tamar, your story - broken parts and all - can be woven into the story of Jesus.
Not because you deserve it. Not because you’re perfect. But because grace reaches into the places we’d rather hide and transforms them from the inside out.
This is Unexpected Grace.
And this Christmas, may you experience the freedom of opening the closet door and discovering that God is already there - ready to forgive, restore, and redeem.
Life Group Discussion Questions
What “skeletons” or hidden areas of brokenness am I still trying to manage on my own? Not the polished story I tell people - but the things I hide, numb, or run from. What am I afraid people might think if they knew?
In what ways do I respond like Judah - hiding, running, numbing, or judging - instead of facing what’s going on inside?
Where have I been trying to manage shame instead of inviting God’s grace to touch it? Where do I feel the life “draining out of me” because I’m keeping silent or carrying things alone?
What would humility look like for me today? What would it look like to say, like Judah, “I’m the one who needs grace. I’m the one who’s broken.”
What am I resisting acknowledging?
Where can I see signs of God’s unexpected grace already at work in my life?
Where has He been transforming me slowly over time - shifting my heart, redirecting my steps, softening places that were once hard?
Comments