“She took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate . . .” A fateful moment, a terrifying moment. They had been warned of the consequences, but something, someone, had convinced them that things would actually be better this way. The effects were immediate and devastating. In a flash, all was lost. Cast out, the bounty and beauty of Eden was irreclaimable. Angels and flaming swords barred re-entrance and whatever future would have been theirs in that magnificent place was now destroyed.
Such a radical reordering brought on by their own foolishness could have caused a soul destroying hopelessness to overtake our first parents were it not for the promise that had been uttered in the garden. God had decreed that one born of the seed of the woman would triumph over Satan and the evil he had unleashed. This seed of hope took root in their souls and sustained the offspring of the woman from that moment forward. For generations they had looked for it to bear fruit.
This looking forward with hope-filled expectation in God’s promise is what the Advent season marks. It is the restoration of the future in the face of human failing. It is the belief that God is true to his word, not just in justice but also in mercy. It is a time, therefore, when we can seek God for his grace to attend our future shattering impulses.
It can only take a moment. A rash decision, a destructive action taken, and the expected future vanishes. Though it was only a dream to begin with, it had the substance of hope to sustain it. Now with the future gone, a hopelessness begins to seep into the soul with corrosive effect. There appears no way out of the consequences of the error. The life that might have been will never be, and justification for pressing on is hard to obtain. Have you experienced this? I pray you haven’t. But if you have, I pray you have discovered the redemptive and restorative work of the one who came to us in Bethlehem. I pray this season of Advent will bring Jesus into your life and with him the future and hope.
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