"Holidays will only be what you make them to be."
I remember her saying it to me.
I was sitting "crisscross -applesauce" at the end of her hospital bed, rubbing her feet and listening carefully to whatever words she could muster up.
I was finishing up my first year of marriage and she knew she was on her way to meet her sweet Jesus. And with every labored breath she was struggling to give me any bit of advice about life that I might need to know before she was gone.
She told me to travel... we did.
She told me to give myself grace... I'm learning.
She told me to CLING to Him... I've never let go... Or maybe it's more like, He's never let go of me. :)
It's ten years later and I have a house full of my own treasures now and holidays come and go. And if you must know, I absolutely LOVE holidays. I love decorating. But above all that I love the way holidays can make the hearts of the six folks living under this farmhouse roof grow.
I LOVE Halloween!
It is possible because "Holidays will only be what you make them to be."
I love dressing up, and eating carmel apples, and playing carnival games. I love hay rides and carving pumpkins with the treasures.
But for us, Halloween is so much more than that.
It's a reminder that because of Christ we're DEAD to sin and ALIVE in Christ.
Because isn't that the whole of Fall? All those gloriously red and orange and yellow leaves falling to their end. Isn't that us? Isn't He in our hearts and in our lives taking the death of our sin and making us into something undeservedly beautiful and all for His glory???
And so in this farmhouse we celebrate! Celebrate the way He's brought us back from the dead!
So together we make Halloween paper and turn it into a sign of joy, of redemption, of new life.
It's a daily renewal around here. SOmetimes it's actually hourly. :)
And this week the treasures and I have been talking about being dead to our sin, about choosing to be Christ towards one another.
And if you wanna know how it's going...
well...
This morning after a heart-bruising moment in our day,
one of my precious children said to this Mama,
"Mom, your not very good at that dead to sin thing yet are you?"
"Not yet." I told that little truth-speaking gem of mine with a smile on my face.
"But I sure am thankful for your forgiveness and grace!"
(Kids are the best grace-givers around! :)
So on Halloween night we'll dress up and we'll laugh and we''ll have a feast of chile and cornbread and treats galore out in the 100-year-old barn that sits in the middle of the field. And we'll fill it with treasure friends and thank Him for taking us from death to life!
Yipee for Halloween!!
Yipee for Hope and Christ and Beauty From Ashes!
"Holidays will only be what you make them to be."
Thanks Mom, for the wise advice. :)
