Day 15

Christmas makes us think about a baby born in a manger, but the need for Christmas was born much sooner. Christmas actually started in a Garden where a serpent told a lie, a woman and a man ate a piece of fruit, and God made a promise.

But if we dig deeper, we’ll see the story goes back even further to a cosmic conflict when Lucifer, the angel of Heaven, deceived himself into thinking he could somehow usurp God in splendor. God banished him permanently from Heaven for his crime, but this was not the end.

In Genesis 3, the battle for glory continued. Satan planted the same idea in Eve’s mind that broke his own relationship with God, “You will be like Him.” He manipulated and disrupted the ecosystem of trust God created in the Garden in Genesis 1 with a simple question: “Did God really say that you will die?” Then came the conniving lie: “You will not surely die. If you eat from this tree, you will become like God.” He’s saying, “You don’t need God. You can be your own God.”

They ate the lie.

Sin then entered the camp. Relationship between God and man was broken, and God cursed everyone involved. He cursed Satan first, and before the punishment for Adam and Eve even left His lips, a promise of victory over the serpent was set into motion.

When God said the woman’s offspring would be at war with the devil’s offspring, He declared, “He will strike your head and you will bruise his heel.” These were fighting words. It was a promise of death. A bruised heel is barely an injury, but a head blow is a kill shot.

Violent as it may be, this is the promise of Christmas. Christ, our victor will come, and He will crush the head of the enemy.

The relationship between God and man that was severed in the Garden would take seed form in a manger, break the soil on a rugged cross, and bloom vibrantly in an empty tomb.

Although Christmas can be a time when we’re reminded of our own broken and difficult earthly relationships, Advent is the perfect time to remember the lengths God went to mend the relationship with us. Jesus came to earth to fulfill God’s promise and heal what the devil had stolen.

Action Step: As you reflect on the merciful nature of our God this Christmas, is there a relationship in your life that needs reconciliation and forgiveness?