Advent Reflections: Creation & The Fall

This week we started our Advent Bible Reading Plan as we prepare our hearts in anticipation for Christmas this year and it has been so good so far! As promised, I’m going to be sharing a small reflection after each section of the reading plan. This is not meant to be a devotional, a summary, a deep dive into the passage, or really anything to add to your Bible readings throughout advent, but simply some reflections from my family and I along the way.

My main goal is to encourage my own heart to really stop, dwell, and reflect on what we are learning together. I pray it will cause you to do the same: to slow down and reflect as you read, and allow the Spirit to work on our heart. It’s easy to make these plans and still rush through them, not allowing them to take root in our hearts or be brought to stand in wonder and awe of our good God in sending Jesus. So, I’ll be sharing to remember and reflect on things that stood out to us, questions we asked along the way, or other insights from our family time in the Word together that have helped us see God’s big picture plan of redemption fulfilled in the promised Messiah.

God’s Good Creation & The Brokenness of Humanity

The first section we read (Days 1-4) started in the beginning at God’s good creation in Genesis 1, and made it through to the tower of Babel in Genesis 11. We have read about how good God is and how His creation reflects His goodness, and we have read on about the brokenness of humanity as they sin and experience the terrible consequences of their sin against a good, good God.

There are two main things that have really stuck out to our family as we have read the first four passages of our reading plan.

1. We have seen so much of WHO our good God is!
2. Our discussion using John 1 alongside the creation story caused an incredible discussion about Jesus.

Let me tell you a few things about each of these and give you a little insight into how God has worked in our family discussions so far around these topics.

God’s Character

The creation narrative is just chocked full with insights into WHO our good God is and what His character is like! We have spent so much time just listing out the character of God that we see in these passages. We have been blown away by God’s sovereign control, power over all, and desire for relationship with those He has made. We have marveled at His creativity, detail, and deep care for all He has made. We have talked about how He creates, values, and sustains life. We have seen why He is so worthy of the praise of all of His creation!

We also see so clearly as we journey from Genesis 1-2 into Genesis 3 what a stark contrast His goodness is against the brokenness of humanity. His character is revealed even more as He patiently deals with the sin that has come into His good creation. We see His love in clothing His people when they are filled with shame and as He moves forward with a plan to redeem them. And we get a glimpse into His promise to send someone who will crush the serpent’s head, and will strike his heel (Genesis 3:15b). What a good and gracious Creator! Right after they disobey His command and choose to distrust His goodness, He begins revealing His plan to redeem them and bring them back into the good presence of relationship with Him.

Now, as we go on with the flood and the tower of Babel, we see that humanity continues down their path of distrusting their good Creator, but God in His goodness doesn’t give up on them. He continues to patiently pursue them and move toward them, even as He brings steep consequences for their sin before them. He is deeply grieved over their sin, but He continues to make a way forward with His good plan of redemption.

Jesus in Creation

The second thing that brought wonderful discussion for us was around reading John 1 alongside the creation story in Genesis 1-2. We could see light-bulbs going off for the kids as we talked about who “the Word” is and how Jesus was there with God in creation making all things. As always, our minds whirled around as we tried to understand the dynamics of the Trinity, and we stood in awe of how God is beyond our understanding or comprehension.

It also amazed us as we discussed how much God revealed to us in Genesis about Himself, but then how He further makes Himself known through Jesus, the Word, the True Light who came into the world! Absolutely incredible! Through Jesus, we get a further revelation of who God is as He announces to the world God’s desire to reconcile all things to Himself and as He shows the world what His Kingdom is like.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1:1-5

All in all, it has been a great start to advent and we are excited to continue down this journey of God’s big story and plan for His creation to know, love, and be in relationship with Him. How has God been revealing who He is and His grand plan to redeem His creation through Christ? I’d love to hear from you!

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