A time of waiting... thousands of years of waiting for the Messiah to come.  Years when God did not intervene with the people's plans and battles were lost... then more years of silence from the last words of Malachi until the introduction of John the Baptist as a baby and then, Jesus, the Holy Child is born.  All those years of waiting, and God sends a baby?   We know, (because we know) how the story plays out.  But do we ever think back to the very first story, Adam and Eve and the serpent (Satin).   All That Time from the time of Adam and Eve until our Lord, the Messiah was able to conquer the sin that Satan had introduced back in the Garden of Eden.  God said he would crush the head of the serpent and Jesus conquered sin, with his crucifixion on the cross and the Resurrection following which is the total gift from God to all of us.  Each year, we celebrate the anniversary of His coming and later, the time of Lent, sorrow and then rejoice in our freedom from sin if we accept his mercy and grace.