My family has loved doing advent devotionals for years, so I decided to write my own. I pray it blesses your family as much as it’s blessed mine.

You can purchase the whole book in print or in an ebook format on Amazon. You can download a printable set of ornaments here or draw or make your own!

Day 2: Sin enters the World

Ornament: Tree with a snake

Scripture: Genesis 3:1-10, 23; Isaiah 53:6; 1 John 1:8-10; Isaiah 59:2 

Song: Joy to the World 

Have you ever made tried to make a painting or a batch of cookies, only to have something happen that messed up those plans? Have you ever spent hours designing and building the perfect fort out of blankets and chairs, or the perfect Lego creation, only to have your dog or your little brother break it to pieces an hour later? 

We want our plans and our creations to work out perfectly, don’t we? But that doesn’t always happen. 

We have seen how God perfectly designed and created the world around us. Adam and Eve were the first two people God created to enjoy his beautiful world. God designed the garden to provide perfectly for all their needs. God placed a special tree in the garden called the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.” God told Adam and Eve that they could eat of any tree in the garden except for this one tree. God wanted Adam and Eve to trust and obey Him. 

Satan, disguised as a serpent, tempted Eve to disobey God. Rather than trusting God’s goodness and honesty, Eve chose to believe the serpent’s lies. Both Adam and Eve ate from the tree that God had told them not to eat from. They made a choice to disobey God, to sin against their good and loving God.  

A perfect world became a broken world and every single person since then has been born a sinner. 

God taught Adam and Eve that sin is costly. Their sin separated them from their loving Father and one day it would cost God’s Son, Jesus, His very life. That act of love by Jesus on the cross provided forgiveness for Adam and Eve’s sin, as well as for your sin and mine, but God wants us to trust and obey Him, like He wanted Adam and Eve to trust and obey Him. 

Do you believe that God is always good and true? Do you believe in Jesus as your Savior?

Thank God today for sending Jesus to earth to die for our sins and to be resurrected to eternal life. 

Remember … Christmas is all about Jesus!