Now we’ve left all of the the lovely things of Fall and November behind. We find ourselves coming into the cold and festive winter month of December.
GOODBYE NOVEMBER, HELLO DECEMBER
I think I can speak for the whole world as I say we will be happy to let go of the past year of 2020. Amidst COVID-19, political upheaval and persecution of many churches; we are glad to wave goodbye to this strange and bewildering year.
It hasn’t been all bad though; and as a matter of fact we were able to give thanks and count about a million blessings back in November. So let’s stop and focus on those good things that happened here in the blog during November and The Thanksgiving season:
REVIEW OF NOVEMBER 2020
I hope your Thanksgiving celebration was great and that it brought a glimmer of hope into one of the darkest years of our country’s history.
We celebrated Thanksgiving at our house as if nothing was wrong; and we all thanked God and acknowledged that we are looking forward to learning what else He is going to do in December; then onward into next year.
With God we know that nothing is impossible; and despite the hard bumps in the road; we can still smile and carry on.
Thanksgiving actually turned into a very lovely day for us.
As we look around; we still see miracles and we know joy and we find hope.
This year a feeling of gratitude for the everyday blessings has greatly increased with us. We no longer take for granted that we will be able to find food at the grocery store; or that we will have work to pay for the mortgage and all of the utilities that keep us warm and dry.
Thinking of the financial crisis that could be hiding behind the next curve in the roads of 2021; we gratefully stop right here and now to consider that we are all still enjoying our home and our neighborhoods and our family.
Little things have become even more important and cherished this year.
God has filled our hearts with gratitude and helped us to cheer one another in new and exciting ways.
A good kind of simplicity has come to settle over many of our homes.
Times have become more precious.
Thanksgiving for us was an awesome season; even in the middle of a national lockdown. We know some people were not as fortunate and our hearts and prayers go out to all of those situations. We are also thankful for those who have recovered and are now getting back to life again.
On a very local level, our gratitude to God was only intensified and our amazement for how His perfect plans for our days to develop were multiplied.
Some of us wrote down our blessings of the year. As is traditional at our house we placed them in the treasure chest that holds notes from many years of answered prayers and blessings.
This year we have a new grandson!
There was also an amazingly wonderful family vacation/Feast and Festival that we enjoyed together with the whole family in October.
The afterglow of our blessed times still lingered on all through the season of Thanksgiving and we made even more joyful memories.
I hope you caught our November articles.
THE HOUSE DOCTOR and the MONDAY NIGHT MENUS categories of the blog echoed all of our favorite past memories of making the season of Thanksgiving more fun and festive.
We shared our favorite recipes and our favorite themes for decorating and preparing our feasts. Some articles were classic and traditional; some took us to Thanksgiving by the Sea and even Thanksgiving in a Tuscan Vineyard. It was fun looking back at these while we celebrated this year’s theme of Gratitude and Simplicity.
There are so many wonderful ways to celebrate the seasons of our lives.
The COME AS A CHILD Thursday bible study continued throughout November with new lessons in Deuteronomy. Israel is about to become a mighty nation and God has parked them on a mountainside across a river in order to get them prepared.
We wanted to summarize and finish our series on SHOULD CHRISTIANS BE INVOLVED IN SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES?; but we are saving those serious thoughts until after the holidays this year.
Don’t worry – we have not forgotten. It will be worth the wait. You can find the past articles in this series under the PIECES OF THE PUZZLE category of the blog.
This subject of Social Justice has spanned several months now. We will take a short break and a deep breath and dive into the finishing articles in January. That seems fitting; since we will also celebrate Martin Luther King Day during that month.
There were many special products picked with our readers in mind in November; we hope you enjoyed them as you browsed THE IN SEASON LIFESTYLE COMMUNITY STORE.
It was our pleasure to feature our own editor’s first publication during this month. The publication of THE GOSPEL HIDDEN IN GENESIS – BOOK ONE OF TWO has been very successful already; even though we are saving our book launching time for later after the pandemic subsides.
You can still find the book for sale on Amazon.com.
THE GOSPEL HIDDEN IN GENESIS – BOOK TWO OF TWO is moving right along and will be published sometime before the end of the year. Book Two promises to be even more exciting and full of interesting stories and characters than Book One. Watch for it!
In the meantime; Book One would be a perfect Christmas gift to all of your friends looking to find a great devotional and/or a good bible study book for small groups to discuss. If any of you decide to do a ZOOM study; please let me know. I would love some feedback.
HAPPENINGS FOR DECEMBER 2020
CHRISTMAS IDEAS GALORE
You know we love celebrating the conception of Christ in December of every year.
We celebrate His glorious birth at the Feast of Tabernacles in the Fall; but that fall birth had to have a beginning and December would have been the right date for the beginning of Mary’s pregnancy with Christ. So the blog does a rather unorthodox thing in December; we celebrate the nine months that Mary was carrying Jesus and we ponder the wonder of Emmanuel – Christ with Us.
Advent is all about the wonder of how God sent Christ to us; how he was like us yet God, how we can grow with Him inside of us as He experiences the same miracle of life that we experienced; then later leads us into a whole new type or being born-again into eternal life.
Such a pondering season!
A Christian Hanukkah that celebrates Christ as The Light of the World just helps us to complete all of the joy of knowing that God had a plan with the sending of His Son to earth to save us; and Mary willingly gave of herself in this awesome adventure. Hanukkah takes us on a journey of miracles; until we see the greatest miracle of all; Jesus – The Light of The World.
Our advent devotions might be a little different here, because these are the things we are reaching up to ponder and remember in their own due seasons and this concept of conception and light and life is what we will celebrate during the season. Jesus gave them all to us as precious gifts to remember Him by. He is our beloved.
THE HOUSE DOCTOR
We are going to confuse a few more people with the truth when we add all of the different ways that we use a Christmas tree to celebrate the miracle of The Conception of Christ, and the way that Jesus and God’s Holy Spirit bring us all to a place of new birth and life-everlasting with God.
Our Christmas trees reflect this Light of The World we find in Christ; and THE HOUSE DOCTOR has so many beautiful decorating themes to share with you.
Each December we try to come up with a new theme.
This year we are going to have a Navy Blue Christmas. We can’t wait to share all of those ideas with you. We have spent many of our December blog articles just showing you our trees and holiday decorating ideas.
PIECES OF THE PUZZLE
If you have qualms about celebrating with a tree though; you might be interested in reading our SEASONS section article titled THE QUESTON OF TREES; also found in the PIECES OF THE PUZZLE section of the blog.
We’ve rounded those thoughts out with other similar articles, and we explain our thoughts about using Advent Wreaths and whether or not we think parents should tell their children about Santa or not. All “traditions” are questioned and our opinion is given under both the SEASONS section and the PIECES OF THE PUZZLE topics. Guaranteed to be original; if nothing else!
HANUKKAH MEDITATIONS
Please don’t miss our HanukKah meditations. We have one for each day of Hanukkah. They will lift your spirits and give you joy because just as in the days of old; surely a miracle is happening even right here as we speak of God and His gift of Jesus Christ to us.
The rest of December will be full of recipes; happy thoughts, gift ideas and ways to enjoy the season; pandemic or not.
COME AS A CHILD BIBLE STUDY
The COME AS A CHILD BIBLE STUDY published on the blog every Thursday is still studying the scriptures in Deuteronomy during the month of December.
We are looking at the fact that God was setting up a new and different type of government as he slowly transitions Israel into a Godly nation. Some of these patterns and ideas are analyzed through the concepts of our own government today.
Do we need to make some Godly changes in America?
God is still patiently teaching us just as He was teaching those old Israelites.
Keep coming back every Thursday and keep walking through the scriptures with us, page-by-page. Wondrous things happen when we bring ourselves before God with the heart of a child seeking to know everything about their Father. We are learning so much from this perspective. There are no wrong answers; God is showing us all different things according to our own needs.
THE COMMUNITY STORE
The IN SEASON Community Store has a fun line-up of December PRODUCTS for you too. Just look under our” About” tab and click on the PRODUCT category.
Our own book – THE GOSPEL HIDDEN IN GENESIS is also featured. Why not order from the blog where it was birthed? We appreciate all the support we can get from our cherished readers. You are the reason we keep on writing and producing manuscripts.
THOSE GLORIOUS IMPOSSIBLES
At the end of every December we love to publish our thoughts of the civil year that has just passed, especially the wonderous, glorious impossible things that we found along the way.
Keep watching for a review of many years of Glorious Impossible past posts, as well as a review of our Glorious Impossibles for 2020. They always happen at the end of December.
Here is wishing you the most joyous holiday season ever!
Remember God is bigger than any pandemic or problem that we could ever experience. Let Him fill your heart with peace, good cheer and brotherly love.
And may your heart find all of the glorious impossibles it desires.
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND GOD BLESS YOU EVERY ONE!
Gail Landgraf/Publisher/Editor/Writer/The IN SEASON Lifestyle Blog/Via Wordcastle Publications LLC