An Orange in the Toe

Somewhere along the timeline of stuffing the stockings during my childhood days and all the way into my parenting-stocking-stuffing days was carried the tradition of putting an orange in our stockings.  I never thought about the why, I just knew at the end of pulling out all my goodies that the toe of my stocking would be stuffed with a beautiful orange.

Our Christmas collection of books holds a Christmas book describing how oranges were given during the holidays; this story is one of the best of Patricia Polacco's works.  This book added more meaning to the oranges in our stockings and this year, I researched where the tradition began.

I believe God gave me an orange to put in the toe of my stocking.  The truths that He poured out during my devotional will hold my stocking steady from swinging out of place.  The orange of truth will allow other joys of the season to be pure delight, if I grasp what His truths are teaching me.

Here are truths He unfolded for me while grounding my stocking for this season.

• Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers - "Beware of 'the cares of this world' Mark 4:19 - they produce the wrong attitudes of the soul...refuse to be swamped by the cares of this world

Wow! Isn't that a toe supporting truth?  During this season, I am not to focus on the cares of this world.

• Another distraction is our passion for vindication - Don't say "I must explain myself" or "I must get others to understand" - Jesus never explained anything.  He left the misunderstanding and misconceptions of others to correct themselves.

This second truth from Chambers will become my motto for ending this year and I hope it becomes how I walk into the future.  If this truth alone is all that comes from stuffing my stocking, I will be transformed.  Over the last few days I have stopped over and over again to think, "I don't need to explain!"  Truly life freeing!!  I know there is a balance here, but I am one who tries tooooooooooooooooo many times to explain myself, and usually it never helps matters anyway.

The Lord knows me; therefore, He also gave me some practical ways to enter this season.

1. Drink in the remedies of God in nature- Dr. Clyde Kilby, "He pleads with us to stop seeking mental health in the mirror of self-analysis, but instead to drink in the remedies of God in nature."
2. Stop being unamazed by the strange glory of ordinary things - instead be awed by an awakening amazement at the strange glory of those same ordinary things. 

"I shall not fall into the falsehood that this day, or any day, is merely another ambiguous and       plodding twenty-four hours, but rather a unique event, filled, if I so wish, with worthy potentialities" - John Piper

1. I will not demean my own uniqueness by envy of others. Mostly I shall simply forget about myself and do my work!  (Now that is a keeper during the season of such materialism)
2. I shall sometimes look back at the freshness of vision I had in childhood and try, at least for a while, to be in the words of Lewis Carroll, the "child of the pure unclouded brow, and dreaming eyes of wonder."

This word has been for me all year.  God has said over and over again... to be more childlike. When I stop and just see the world through Benjamin's eyes, this becomes very easy... and oh the joy!

The last and final word through my devotionals out of John Piper's Taste and See, along with Utmost for His Highest placed the large orange fruit into the toe of my stocking.

"Not allow the devilish onrush of this century to usurp all my energies but will instead, as Charles Williams suggested, "fulfill the moment as the moment."

Now my stocking will hold all the other treasures of this season of life.  I am anxiously watching for each surprise, just like I did all those years ago as a child.

Put Away But Not Forgotten

The season has come to an end, yet the gratefulness continues.  As I packed up my Thanksgiving decoration, washed another dish, pondered over the small group we had this year, I prayed prayers of thanksgiving.

This year was a change.  Adult children literally all over the world, or making memories with their soon-to-be extended families, meant less at our table.  In fact, I can't even remember a time that I only had Thanksgiving for six.  However,although the calm was awkward, it was still precious to have this quality time with just four of our children.

While picking up the decorations and putting our thanksgiving page on my desk to put into a scrapbook, the text from my husband came.  Our season of three months of unemployment....no pay checks, had come to an end as he deposited our first check!!!!!!!!  His new hourly, temporary job had come the middle of November.  He trained and started to work while still developing his insurance accounts.  How grateful we are.....our flesh cried out "Thank-you Lord!"

We all speak of God's faithfulness, though some know it through just His words, others know it through experiences like we have just walk through.  To experience provision from heaven through checks in the mail that arrived just the day that a bill was due....we saw His faithfulness.  As He did in the wilderness with the Israelities, He did for us, providing manna for each day.

I smiled as the decor was taken down from its place, the books returned to their shelf and the recalling of His faithfulness to the Pilgrims.  Our God is truly remarkable!

I pondered if I should just stop blogging through the Christmas season.  I really am not interested in so many of the traditional posts for this season....life is still very unpredictable at this time.  Then I set down to have my devotional and I felt I knew where I wanted to go this season with my posts.  During the summer I wrote posts on filling my sand pail.  The Lord knew that I would need each of those scoops to bring me through this unemployment journey, so why not see what He has in store for me through the Christmas season?

I am going to be filling my Christmas Stocking!  I hope you enjoy seeing what the Lord puts in my stocking...or join me also in filling your own stocking. I think He has some special things in store as I watch what He wants to give me this season as I focus on the Reason for the Season.

Time to Recall

The story never gets old...it just buries itself deeper into my heart and soul.  They sacrificed everything to start a new life in a world were they could worship God as they pleased. Across a vast ocean they sailed in a  wooden boat to a new land.  The facts still amaze me as I look at God's providence over this part of our Nation's history.

• 66 days crossing the stormy Atlantic
• 104 arrived safely including a birth at sea
• "Being thus arrived in a good harbor and brought safe to land," wrote Governor William Bradford,"they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of heaven, who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean and delivered them from all the perils and miseries therefor  again to set their feet on the firm and stable earth, their proper element."
• over half of the adults died the first winter - leaving unmarked graves in fear that the Indians would see how many had died 
• the spring brought Samoset greeting them with the English words "Welcome"
• Squanto came speaking their language and teach them how to trap eels and plant corn
• when the Mayflower returned, none wanted to go back
• Fall brought harvest and celebration - Massosoit and 90 Indians came to celebrate- it was a three day feast
• A peace treaty by word of mouth between the Pilgrims and the Indians survived 50 years

These brave and courageous men and women began our Nation. They acknowledged God's blessings through their great loss and hardship.

George Washington's 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation.

"Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness."

Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation

"It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon' and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord."

I excitedly recall these facts to my sons. I want them to know the foundation of our country...and the sacrifices that were paid so we could bow our hands in a prayer of thanks this season.  If we don't keep recalling, it is just one generation away from being forgotten.

Happy Thanksgiving!