The Christmas story began in the Garden of Eden

God created Adam & Eve in bodies that would live forever. They would never grow old, they would never be sick, they would never know disease or evil. All they knew was how good life was. They were as innocent children. God gave one rule, don’t eat from the Tree of Good & Evil, for if you do you will surely die. Well they ate from that tree & their bodies began to decay & age, sickness & disease were free to come into the world now. They “experienced” Evil. Their innocence of knowing only good had been lost. From now on they would know & experience both good & evil all the rest of the days of their earthly life. Evil had invaded their world. By disobedience they had invited it in & lost their innocence.

God did not want them to die immediately, he wanted to give them time to repent; so his grace (love for them) substituted their immediate deaths by killing two animals instead. He took the animal skins to prepare clothing to cover Adam & Eve’s nakedness.

For the next four thousand years people sinned against God & continued to blame each other refusing to take accountability for their own participation in sinful thoughts, words & deeds.. Animals died for sacrifices in their place daily, weekly, & yearly for the sins of the people. Some of the people repented, but most did not. Most did not care that animals were dying in their place for their sins.

God decided, “What if a human died for the sins of other humans? Then would they take it seriously? Then would they repent? What if God, Himself, appeared in human form as a baby, grew up with them, sinned not, but loved them so much He was willing to die in their place? No more animal sacrifices, but God Himself would do it! The Creator would take the punishment for His creation! He would rather die for them than let them die without an opportunity for them to know Him, & willfully choose to share daily life with Him for eternity, as had been the original plan in the Garden.”

Thus the Christmas story. Mary a virgin gave birth to a baby given by the Holy Spirit & named Him “Jesus, Emanuel, God is with us!”

Note: Jesus’ body was later crucified & died as an adult, but Jesus is still alive today. No one can kill God. If you accept He came & took your punishment, you will live forever, too. Your earthly body will one day die, but you will live forever. There is a new glorified body awaiting those born again in Christ. It will never die, know decay, sickness, disease or death.

Side Note: That same Grace (Love from God) that brought the prodigal son out of sin is the same Grace (Love from God) that kept the good brother from ever entering such sins. Think not more highly of yourself good brother or good sister, you did not keep yourself out of that depth of sin, God did! By the Grace of God it was not you & you get no credit. You are no better than the one who fell into sin. You have been filled with a lifetime of “haughty better than others sinful attitudes”. In your self-conceited, look down on others less fortunate than you, sinful view points. You have been a self-righteous “prodigal good brother.” You could have been the one lost in a pig pen. It could have been you. You had nothing to do with it not being you. It was Pure Grace (God’s Love for you) that kept you out! And Pure Grace (God’s Love for the other one) that brought him out! You had nothing to do with it. It could have been the other way around. Only, but by the Grace of God, “there go you or I”. It was God’s Grace (Love for Adam & Eve) that kicked them out of the Garden so they would not be tempted to eat from the Tree of Life next (without repentance) & remain in that sinful state forever with no possibility of ever repenting & living with God again.