Beautiful Fruit

2nd night of Advent—Sin enters our world.

Symbol: Apple w/snake

Hymns: Love Divine, All Love Excelling; and, Just As I Am

We start the evening with laughter—hearty, silly, engaging laughter. It's all over very base realities that are very suited to boys of any age, though perhaps especially teen-age. About tender areas inadvertently bruised and a high school story from Dad (Dad always has a story) about a shop class incident illustrating the same. Yes, base. Yes, earthy. All very human and relatable.

And then, speaking of hurtful incidents, we move right into the mar of sin. It strikes me that it wasn't ugly to look at, there was no visual cue screaming out warning and danger. In fact, quite the opposite.

Good. Pleasing. Desirable. Delightful. Pleasant. Beautiful. This fruit God had made was all of this and more. There was nothing bad about the fruit.

It was disobeying God's word of prohibition that brought the gut-wrenching, nauseous, unimaginably hurtful pain that seared and scorched us to death.

But, thanks be to God for his unimaginable promise of a Savior, enfleshed in the seed of a woman. See her there, riding the second day, toward her own pain, bearing her own Great Physician, who would remove the putrid, rotten, death-flesh and bathe us in his life-giving blood.