Salvation in a Curse: The Genesis of Christmas

In the American church, we have turned the account of the birth of Jesus into some sort of Christian mythology. We only talk about it in December, keep it separated from the rest of the Bible and do our best to downplay the supernatural aspects. It’s like we keep it in a red and green spiritual Christmas tote that we only pull out of storage on Thanksgiving and then put back promptly on December 26. Despite this fact, the first reference to Christmas in the Bible isn’t even in Matthew or Luke. It’s also not in Isaiah or any of the other prophetic books. It’s in Genesis. There is no mention of wisemen, no angelic visitations and no mangers, but there it is — right there in the first book of the Bible. It’s there that we find both the subtle sin and the surprising solution that created Christmas in the first place.