Preparation Season
I admire my friend Judy. During our recent state to state text chat, she told me that she was trying to finish her Christmas shopping. She said, “I know it’s still early but my deadline has always been wrapped by Thanksgiving. Then I can enjoy the holidays and can do things if something comes up.” Wow, I was impressed! My response was: “You are smart!! I am NOT!!”
Even though I am not a super smart preparer, these days are still a preparation season for me. I bought some presents at Santa’s Workshop last weekend, and on Tuesday I made some preparations for Thanksgiving. I arranged most of the fall decorations that have been scattered around the house in the dining room to make room for the Christmas decorations that are slowly finding homes in the other rooms.
I enjoyed arranging fall keepsakes from long ago, such as the homemade cornhusk doll and silk leaves that have been living with our family for quite some time. Newer items on the table include the FreshCut paper pop-up bouquet and the fun cloth turkey friends gave us to brighten our days at Hope Lodge last year. The glass pumpkin has candy corn, something grandchildren requested last year. Especially precious are the fabric pumpkins our daughter Bethany made by hand and sent us last year at Hope Lodge, just weeks after she finished chemotherapy. She mailed us the placemat, too. These gifts meant so much to us. Years ago she and her children made the thumbprint painting hanging on the mirror. In her beautiful handwriting, it declares:
Give thanks to the Lord,
For He is good;
His love endures forever.
Psalm 106:1b NIV
When we celebrate Thanksgiving next week, we can enjoy a Thanksgiving oasis in there while we are “beginning to feel a lot like Christmas” everywhere else. Like most times in my adult life, I’ve got these two preparations going on, plus a whole lot more. I’m sure your life is like that, too, Mama. We are always in a preparation season.
When we spend time in preparation, we are doing something that God does, too.
He prepared the Universe and continues to prepare it.
By faith we understand that
the worlds were prepared by the word of God,
so that what is seen
was not made out of things which are visible.
Hebrews 11:3
Yours is the day, Yours also is the night;
You have prepared the light and the sun.
Psalm 74:16
You visit the earth and cause it to overflow;
You greatly enrich it;
The stream of God is full of water;
You prepare their grain,
for thus You prepare the earth.
Psalm 65:9
He prepared what He wants His children to do.
For we are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand
so that we would walk in them.
Ephesians 2:10
And we are grateful that Jesus is preparing a place for all of God’s children. He promised:
“Do not let your heart be troubled;
believe in God, believe also in Me.
In My Father’s house are many dwelling places;
if it were not so, I would have told you;
for I go to prepare a place for you.
If I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come again and receive you to Myself,
that where I am, there you may be also.”
John 14:1-3
You are preparing your children every day. I know you feel weak and unsure and inadequate, but you can feel great about doing what God wants you to do. Be sure to stop and relish that feeling. You deserve it.
For He established a testimony in Jacob
And appointed a law in Israel,
Which He commanded our fathers
That they should teach them to their children,
That the generation to come might know,
even the children yet to be born,
That they may arise and tell them to their children,
That they should put their confidence in God
And not forget the works of God,
But keep His commandments,
And not be like their fathers,
A stubborn and rebellious generation,
A generation that did not prepare its heart
And whose spirit was not faithful to God.
Psalm 78:5-8