Before Time Began

The Christmas story...it began long, long ago...long before time began. It began in the heart of the Creator who loved. He loved before He created, before He spoke in to being all that is. He loved enough to know how the creation would choose to love something other than his Creator and to create anyway. Man, that first man and every man after him, would indeed choose...choose to disobey the one thing he was forbidden to do.

I was recently reading with Jacob from his little children's bible the story of the fall. It hit me right then: most people don't get it. The person who interpreted this story and put it into words for children didn't get it. God did not punish Adam and Eve by putting them out of the Garden of Eden. No. He protected them - He showed them mercy. He desired that man should not live forever in his fallen state - unable to have the relationship with his Creator that he was designed for. He desired to restore. Imagine if the Giver of Life allowed His creation to reach up and eat the fruit of the tree of life and live forever...forever separated from His Creator, forever powerless against sin and Satan. Imagine the heartache of a world without hope. Oh...we have heartache now...but we have hope...hope that the Creator, who loved us before He laid the foundations of the world, before we took our first breath, before we were even a blip on the screen during an ultrasound, hope that He is able to accomplish what we are powerless to do. Ahhh...how good of the Creator that before the world existed, before that first sin, He made a way through Christ for us to conquer sin, to live even though we die, to walk and to fellowship once again with Him.

And that way came in the form of a baby who lay in a manger that holy night. His love came down...His love spoke healing to the hurting and invited those who were far away to draw near. His name is Jesus the Christ. Emanuel, God with us. Savior. Messiah.

My prayer for you this Christmas is that you will know and understand the depth of your Creator's love for you. May you experience His mercy and grace. YOU were on His heart before the world began.

Merry Christmas!