Quiz: On God, the Creator and Provider

Throughout the entire history of mankind, God prepared people for the Coming of the Savior. The first promise of Christ's coming mentioned in Holy Scripture was proclaimed immediately after the expulsion of our first parents from Paradise. Addressing to the serpent-tempter, God spoke words that many theologians call nothing less than the Protoevangelium (First Gospel). These are the words: "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (Gen. 3:15). In this prophecy, God promises humanity not submission to evil, but struggle against evil — a struggle fraught with many trials, yet one that will ultimately end in evil's defeat. For a strike to the head is fatal to a serpent. Here God promises (albeit veiledly) to send His Only Begotten Son into the world, who would be incarnate of the pure blood of the "woman" — the Virgin Mary. In order this Coming to bear meaning, it needed to become the object of mankind's longing and aspirations, the focus of its striving and prayers. Humanity had to mature and rise to meet it. Only then people would willingly accept God's great gif t— Salvation. To make humanity aware of the depth of its fall into the abyss of evil, God allowed it to endure many sorrows. Thus God did both things – educated fallen man and cultivated within him a yearning for swift restoration of communion with the Divine. God reinforced and multiplied this holy desire through numerous prophecies and promises about Christ's coming. History shows that by the time of the Savior's advent, the intensity of expectation had grown exceedingly great. And so, when the human race had been prepared to meet the Incarnated God, when from among mankind appeared That Unique One, worthy to become the Mother of God Himself (according to His human nature), when finally She voluntarily consented to this momentous step — the Lord did not delay to come.