The Jesus Tree

Abraham: The Root of Promise “Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.” Do you recognize those words? Because of my three sisters…they have been branded in my brain. They come from The Sound of Music, a movie that seemed to be on repeat in our New Jersey house growing up. To be honest, the movie makes me smile as it brings back a host of childhood memories, though I think I know more lyrics to the music than I actually want to admit. That opening line stuck with me, though, because it’s true: some stories really do need to be told from the beginning. Such is the case with Christmas. If we rush straight to the manger, we miss the long road that leads there. We miss the anticipation. The longing. The promises given long before the star ever shone over Bethlehem. And that road begins with a man named Abraham. When the World Fell Apart Before we meet Abraham, the Bible takes us back even further. In the opening pages of Genesis, we see a world filled with light and goodness. God speaks, and creation bursts into beauty. Oceans roll. Mountains rise. Trees stretch toward the sky. And then God creates people, the pinnacle of His creation. God makes them in His own image, crowns them with dignity, and invites into relationship with Him. It was all very good. But as we know, it didn’t stay that way. Sin entered secretly, like poison poured into clear water. Adam and Eve reached for life on their own terms. What followed was heartbreak. Shame replaced innocence. Fear replaced joy. The ground itself felt the curse. Yet even in that moment of judgment, God gave them words of hope. He promised that one day a descendant of the woman would crush the serpent’s head. Evil would not win forever. A Deliverer would come. This is the first whisper of Christmas! Still, the world spiraled downward. Violence increased. Pride grew bold. By the time humanity gathered to build the tower at Babel, they weren’t trying to honor God, they were trying to make a name for themselves. And so God scattered them. By the end of Genesis 11, everything feels fractured. Nations divided. Hearts hardened. The knowledge of God fading. And if the story stopped there, it would be unbearably sad. But God is about to start something brand new. A Call in the Dark In Genesis 12, God speaks again. This time to one man. His name is Abram. Abram isn’t introduced as a hero. He doesn’t appear powerful or impressive. He’s simply living his life when God calls him to leave his home, his security, and his future plans. God tells Abram that He will make him into a great nation. That He will give him land. That through him, all the families of the earth will be blessed. It’s hard to overstate how surprising this is. You see, Abram and his wife, Sarai, have no children. They are aging. So the promise of descendants as numerous as the stars must have sounded almost silly. But Abram believed God. He didn’t have a full map. He didn’t know the timeline. He simply trusted the One who called him. That trust is what makes Abraham the root of the promise. A Promise That Holds What God made with Abraham wasn’t a fragile agreement dependent on human strength. It was a covenant grounded in God’s own character. It’s called an unconditional covenant. The Abrahamic Covenant. God promised three things woven together: 1 - Descendants beyond counting. 2 - A land where they would dwell under His care. 3 - A Seed through whom blessing would reach the whole world. That last promise is the thread that pulls us forward. Yes, Abraham would become the father of a nation. But the promise narrows as the story unfolds. Generation after generation, the hope centers more clearly on one coming child. One offspring. One Savior. The Seed in the Manger Now picture Bethlehem. A young mother wraps her newborn in cloth and lays Him in a feeding trough. The night is still. The air is cool. The shepherds are waiting outside. In that tender moment, Mary is holding more than her baby boy. She is holding the fulfillment of a promise spoken two thousand years earlier. The promised Seed has come. Sometimes when we think about Christmas, we focus on sweet memories or cozy traditions. And so much about Christmas is wonderful and nostalgic. But the reality is that Christmas is the faithfulness of God made visible. It is the covenant kept. It is the long-awaited answer to a world broken in Genesis. When we look into the manger, we are seeing the God who keeps His word. The God who did not abandon humanity to its pride or its pain. The God who chose one man, built one family line, and sent one Savior so that people from every nation could be brought home. This is why Matthew starts his family tree of Jesus with Abraham. He stands at the root of the Jesus Tree. And from his faith and obedience, a family line forms that will one day carry the King of Kings. What This Means for Us Do you ever look at the world and feel the weight of Genesis 11 all over again? Division. Confusion. Pride. Fear. It can seem like things are unraveling. Christmas reminds us that God works through promise, not panic. He keeps speaking light into darkness. He keeps moving history toward redemption. If God could take a barren couple and bring forth a nation… If He could take centuries of waiting and bring forth a Savior… Then He can be trusted with your story too. The baby in the manger is proof that God does not forget His promises and the God who was faithful to Abraham will be faithful to you. So this season, as you trace the branches of the Jesus Tree, remember that the story didn’t begin in Bethlehem. It began with a promise. And that promise still holds.