For in Him we live and move and have our being;  … For we are also His offspring.

Acts 17:28

Our journey through the Advent Season is meant to solidify our identity in God, as we trace our beginnings, our wanderings and God’s pursuit to draw us back to Him. On the Jesse Tree an ornament symbolizing the tree with its fruit points to the creation and the fall of mankind into sin.  Often times, when we think of the fall of man, we focus on the act of man’s sin, instead of the impact of man’s sin.  

This ornament reminds us, that we were made in the image and likeness of God.  We were created to live in close relationship to God.  In Genesis 2:7, I am apprehended by the image in my mind of man’s first moments of life. 

Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath or spirit of life, and man became a living being.

Genesis 2:7

Imagine God breathing into his nostrils, the very breath or spirit of life.  When Adam first opened his eyes, his eyes locked into the gaze of his Creator and Maker, the One who gave him life.  In those first moments of existence, he saw the reflection of himself in the eyes of God.  Right from the beginning Adam knew whose he was, and who God was to him.

As a result of the “spirit of life” being breathed into man by God, man was like God.  And every day man experienced close fellowship with God, this is until sin and its shame brought a separation between God and His creation.

When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees.   Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

Genesis 3:8-9

The greatest impact of sin was that sin separated man from His close fellowship with God.  The impact of sin was very great!  Man not only lost his place of authority and dominion on earth, but mankind lost their “face-to-face” connect with their Heavenly Father.  Therefore mankind lost their sense of identity; resulting in man wandering about in the darkness of their own understanding.

But Christmas is God’s answer to mankind’s loss.  As the greatest present of Christmas is that God came down as man, to satisfy the consequence of our sin so that we can be close to Him once again. As you prepare to celebrate, rejoice in the true “Spirit” of Christmas” and receive the present of His Holy Spirit to revive your life in Him again!

 After he had said this, he breathed on the disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.

John 20:22

Keep me as the apple of the eye; Hide me in the shadow of Your wings

Psalms 17:8