We celebrate every year the birth of Jesus. We recount the events of that first Christmas with the shepherds and the angels, the star and the Magi, the long trek of Mary and Joseph to the “room-less” Bethlehem, not to mention the call to Mary and preparations by God with Elizabeth and the birth of John. It took some doing to get Christmas to become a reality. And while Christmas did not happen until Christ was born, it did not begin with His birth. Jesus was born at the “fullness of time,” a time determined years before the event. It came at the time of a certain Roman census. But before a Roman census, there had to be a Rome. The Son of David would sit forever on his father’s throne. But before there could be David’s son, there had to be David. You see where this goes. But how far back does this go?
Indeed, it can truly be said that Christmas began in the Garden of Eden, after the fall if not sooner! With the word to the serpent (Satan) that God would put “enmity between you and woman. And between your seed and her seed (Christ); He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” This is descriptive of the events that took place on the Cross of Christ. It was there in Jesus’ death that Satan bruised His heel. It is there also where Jesus bruised Satan’s head, defeating him and his rebellion against God. It was there, where God took the sins of the world upon Himself for our salvation, that the promise in the Garden was fulfilled.
But, of course, before there could be the cross of Christ there must be His glorious birth. In the fullness of time, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of a virgin named Mary, Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God, was born. -- Ben