by Rebekah Harvey
We are now in the thick of the holidays, which can present a plethora of emotions for many of us. Even those of us who love being swept up in the busyness of the season, can at times experience being overwhelmed and a bit stressed out by the long list of to do’s, and places to be that this time of year presents.

Long, long before there was any commercialization of Christmas, before celebrations with family and friends, neighborhood Secret Santas, even before Hanukkah and the celebratory traditions began, a promise was made, a prophecy given because mankind needed a Savior, we needed to be saved from our sin that separated us from eternity with our Creator.

Sometime after God’s precious creation, Adam and Eve were placed in the beautiful garden of Eden, separation and death entered in through disobedience and the deception of the serpent. (Read Genesis 1-3) Fortunately for us, God had a plan to bring us back together with Him. God spoke this promise of a Savior in Genesis 3:15 ”And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.” This began a long hard road for mankind, but God did not leave us to our own devices to bring about our salvation, because sinful man is incapable of that.

We read about the promised Savior in Isaiah 7:14, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” This promised Son was to be the Savior that would redeem all mankind that chooses to believe in Him. Immanuel, meaning God with us, was and is our special delivery.

I encourage you as you go through the remainder of the holiday season to take some time each day and think about and thank our gracious Creator for sending the special delivery, His Son, Jesus, God with us, our Savior. He willingly paid the debt that He did not owe, and we could not pay because of His great love for us.