Genesis 3: 8-19, 22: 15-18
Our people fell. Long ago. By our disobedience we became afraid of God rather than enjoying his company. We live in fear and deceit. We chose a curse for ourselves: physical pain, relational problems, hunger, death, and decay. Yet, even at that time, God promised a human who would strike down our greatest enemy. I wonder if Adam and Eve knew that human would also be God himself???
Abraham did not keep back his own very special son when God asked him to give him up. The world has been blessed in uncountable ways by that act of obedience. But even more, God did not keep back his own very special Son at just the right time. And the world has been blessed in even more unimaginable ways by that Sacrifice and Gift!
With that Gift comes the promise that one day the beautiful paradise of Adam and Eve, which was marred by fear and deception, will be restored - no more pain, no more relational problems, fullness (more than just food - we’ll be filled with the Lord!), life, and growth. God kept his promise to Adam and Eve in a way so amazing they could not probably have imagined it. He is able to keep his promise of complete restoration - let’s be on the lookout for it!
Christmas is a celebration of a past event, but, like so many of the Psalms which meditate on God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt, it’s a reminder that as God has acted in the past, he will act in the future. Christmas looks back to our fall and to God’s Gift in Jesus, but it also looks forward to God’s miraculous plans for the future. Let’s not grow weary in our faith, because the best is yet to come!
