Christmas is the promise made good – a promise that God our Father made to Adam and Eve.
In Genesis 3:15, the Lord God said to the serpent, the devil,’ I will make you enemies of each other; you and the woman, your offspring her offspring. It will crush your head and you will strike its heel.’ The offspring of the woman, Mary, is Jesus Christ. We know that the serpent struck the heel of Jesus when Jesus was made to die on the cross. When one’s heel is struck, there is much pain but it is not fatal. This is what the devil and his minions (those who opposed Jesus) did but they were not able to snuff out the life of the Divine. At the Resurrection, Satan is crushed. This is repeated in Isaiah 9:6, ‘For a son has been born for us, a son has been given to us, and dominion has been laid on his shoulders; and this is the name he has been given, ‘Wonder-Counsellor, Mighty-God, Eternal-Father, Prince-of-Peace’
God our Father reminded His people of His promise when He said through Isaiah 7:14, ‘The Lord will give you a sign in any case: It is this: the young woman is with child and will give birth to a son whom she will call Immanuel.’
Today, we celebrate the fruit of our Father’s faithfulness. Today, we celebrate the love of our Father. One can easily see the fruit of the love between a husband and his wife in their children. Jesus is the fruit of our Father’s love. We remember John 3:16, “For this is how God loved the world: he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”
Focusing on just the baby Jesus in the manger is losing focus on the depth of the truth – that our Father loves us so deeply that He does not spare the best He has for our salvation.
Today, we celebrate the depth of the love of our Father. It can only be shown by returning what we have received by loving others as much as He has first loved us.