In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth …
Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good!
Genesis 1:1, 31 NLT
But there was evil in God’s very good creation. Scholars think that the Archangel Lucifer’s rebellion and expulsion from heaven (Isaiah 14:12-15 and Ezekiel 28:12-18) occurred before creation began. Tempted by that evil, our first parents broke fellowship with God, unleashing sin and death. We live in that brokenness.
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Evil by its very nature opposes the purposes of God,
but God, in his sovereignty, can make even this evil serve his purposes.
David F. Wells
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God has a plan to redeem and restore. He tells the snake:
And I will cause hostility between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring.
Genesis 3:15a NLT
Women are not disqualified by Eve’s sin. God Himself will be born of a woman – but of no man – to ransom the world.
He will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
Genesis 3:15b NLT
Christ will strike a fatal blow to Satan’s head, while Satan’s best efforts will only strike His heel. That outcome has been certain since the beginning.
And Time has been marching toward that end ever since. Even when it seemed like nothing was happening. Especially then.
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The season of Advent means there is something on the horizon
the likes of which we have never seen before …
What is possible is to not see it, to miss it, to turn just as it brushes past you.
And you begin to grasp what it was you missed,
like Moses in the cleft of the rock, watching God’s [back] fade in the distance.
So stay. Sit. Linger. Tarry. Ponder. Wait. Behold. Wonder.
There will be time enough for running. For rushing. For worrying. For pushing.
For now, stay. Wait. Something is on the horizon.
Jan L. Richardson, Night Visions: Searching the Shadows of Advent and Christmas