Day 6 The Core of the Problem

Day 6 The Core of the Problem

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.  Genesis 3:7

Any discussion of the Nativity, Christmas, must include our own intransigent attitudes toward sin. We carefully feed our pride, stoking the fires of self-will to justify rejecting authority. Recently in my classroom when the conversation turned to driving responsibly, one of my students said, in all seriousness, “If no one sees it, it’s not wrong.” This statement elicited general agreement from many in my classroom. This should not surprise us. We all think highly of ourselves and regularly engage in a variety of mental gyrations to justify our questionable decision-making. We make decisions based on our wants, not God’s revealed will. We pridefully assert our independence. Each of us takes a bite out of the proverbial apple.

At its core, Christmas is not about tinsel, trees, lights, carols, and carols. Christmas is about God’s choosing, long ago before the clock was up and running. God chose to walk the path from Eden to Bethlehem for me, to set right those prideful acts that flowed from my mind and hands. When I sit alone in the evening, contemplating Christmas, the Nativity, the Incarnation, I must start with my own culpability, since it was my culpability that set in motion the events we celebrate at Christmas time.