If you’re like me, you love fruit! There are so many colors, textures, and flavors. Maybe you also like the adage “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.”

In Eden, it wasn’t the fruit’s fault. The forbidden fruit may have been beautiful and sweet—or maybe not. It was attractive to Eve and Adam mainly because it was forbidden.

The Bible explains that when Adam and Eve ate that fruit, it didn’t bring delight and satisfaction, but shame, misery, and ultimately death. It spoiled all of their relationships: with God, with each other, and with creation. Indeed, all who have lived on this earth since that terrible moment have shared in the error and its consequences. The apostle Paul summarizes this way: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

The consequences are grim. And yet, almost immediately after the sin of Adam and Eve, God provides a promise. In the curse spoken to the serpent, God promises a Savior: “he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

In this dark story, we catch the first glimpse of Christmas. Jesus is the one bruised in the crushing of sin and death that restores our relationship with God. At Christmas we enjoy the sweetest fruit—the fruit of Christ’s redemption and the chance to share it with the world.