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December 1

The First Brushstroke

Text: Genesis 3:16

Perfection is gone. Innocence is gone. The leaves are starting to show their age. The Creator seems far away. Adam and Eve have never heard this question before, “Where are you?” and they didn't like it. And though they knew that hiding was an irrational exercise they were compelled to try. Slowly, cautiously, with an anxiety never known before, they came out from hiding. 

The Creator proceeds to curse the snake and then bring judgment down on the woman and then the man. His words, which cannot be devoid of love, had a layer of justice that lowered the eyes of the first humans. And yet, hope still flowed from the divine river of goodness. It is known as the proto-evangelion or the “first gospel”. 

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3:15)

Here God is speaking to the snake, the serpentine host of Satan, foreshadowing the battle between good and evil, the line of Seth against the line of Cain. And yet it is here that the first brushstroke is unleashed. The mysterious prophecy that the seed of the woman is going to crush the head of the serpent. This verse assured the first couple that God will send a Savior, a Messiah, but whose identity is still very much unknown. The painting is barely a painting. But now there is a stroke of color. There is a promise. There is hope. With God, nothing is impossible.