December 25, 2025, by Pastor Max Ingalls of the Seward City Church
I can’t shake this picture of Eve & Mary by Sister Grace Remington. I first saw it several years ago, and ever since, at some point during the Christmas season, it comes to mind. This year, even more so. The image is telling a story of the reality of hope. Eve is holding the fruit, the snake is clinging to her leg, and her face is downcast. Mary then takes Eve’s hand and places it on her belly. She can feel what is hidden and growing inside Mary’s womb… hope.
Eve can remember how things were before sin entered the world. She remembers the very presence of God walking with her and Adam in the garden. Her soul and every soul since has been longing for this. There’s a sense of hopelessness because she can’t make up the difference. She can’t fix what is broken. And when feeling Mary’s womb, hope begins to rise. Salvation, a rescue from a brokenness that she never thought she’d see an end to.
The good news of Christmas is that Hope has arrived, and his name is Jesus.
We live in a world similar to that in which Jesus was born. Full of anger, bitterness, political tension, broken relationships, people who are hurting, etc. The world was very dark. But Jesus’ arrival meant that light was breaking into it (John 1:9).
The One who designed, created, and spoke into existence both this world and your very own life… His presence was coming near us, or as John 1:14 says, “He became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.”
There is much mystery here. John 3:16, a familiar verse that speaks of “God so loving the world that he gave his only Son…” Ya, that one. It’s the best. 🙂 And verse 17 should be read alongside it as well: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through him.”
Two things here: it’s crazy that God so loves us and wants us to be near Him, and that his rescue plan would involve giving up His Son and entrusting His Son to a teenage girl (Mary). Two things that I would not be able to do!
Fast forward to the result of the rescue mission, and again, Sister Grace’s painting. At the bottom of the picture is the other end of the snake, his head underneath Mary’s foot. This represents triumph over the foe that deceived Eve and humanity ever since, the idea that we could do without God and live for ourselves… the result was catastrophic, i.e., death.
Saint Peter gives a very truncated version of this rescue plan: “For Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Pt. 3:19). He died, then rose again, so that we could be brought back to God. This is why he came – to restore the broken, to heal the battered, to lift the fallen, to remove anger and replace it with joy, to bring peace, hope, and love.
The Christmas song says, “Let every heart prepare him room…” We do this by not just going through the motions of Christmas, but by giving him our heart, the reason why he came that first Christmas morning.
Merry Christmas!!!
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Isaiah 9:6 ESV
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