What if the story of the very first human being was always meant to point us toward something greater? As we begin a journey through Scripture leading up to Christmas, we discover that the Old Testament is filled with signposts directing our attention to Jesus long before he ever arrived in a manger. We start at the beginning, with Adam, who Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 calls a pattern of the one to come. Through Adam, we inherited the physical life, the earthly existence shaped by dust and breath. But through Jesus, described as the last Adam and a life-giving spirit, we are offered something far beyond the physical. This contrast between the earthly and the heavenly, the natural and the spiritual, invites us to see our own lives differently. We are born into Adam's story, but we do not have to end there. The same God who breathed life into the first man sent his Son from heaven to breathe eternal life into all who believe. That is a truth worth sitting with as the days grow shorter and the season of Advent approaches.