Ann Voskamp's Blog, page 40
December 1, 2022
The Powerful Backstory of How Your Christmas Tree -& Your Christmas- Can Truly Destress You
When I was a little kid, all the hurt of loss and trauma was rather large under our roof. So getting up even a sad little Charlie Brown Christmas tree for our family was, honestly, just painfully hard.
The most wonderful time of year can be mostly a painful time of year for a whole lot of weary folks.
And then, somewhere down all the decked halls, some of us can somehow make an unexpected turn, and, for a fleeting moment, catch a glimpse of all that we wished our story looked like, instead of the way it does.
“The most wonderful time of year
can be a mostly painful time of year
for a whole lot of weary folks.“
And, right there in the midst of all the twinkling lights, the gulf of loss between where you are, and where you always imagined your story might have turned out to be, can’t seem to be bridged by cutting down a tree of any height, so you try to brush back the unexpected heartache with the back of your hand and breathe and do the next hard and holy thing.
As I hang ornaments on our own tree this year, trying not to slip and fall into any chasms of sadness, I’m struck by how they say the reality is “that simply sitting looking at trees reduce blood pressure as well as the stress-related hormones cortisol and adrenaline.”
That research’s actually discovered that “participants walking in a forest experienced less anxiety, hostility, fatigue, confusion, and depressive symptoms, and more vigor… that those who gazed at a winter forest reported significantly better moods, more positive emotions, more vigor, and a greater sense of personal restoration.”
Surprisingly, the data concluded how forests powerfully affect our brains: “People living in proximity to trees had better “amygdala integrity”—meaning, a brain structure better able to handle stressors.”
And, here we are: Tis the season where the whole spinning planet orbits with people living in closest proximity to trees —all trying not to be stressed right out of our collective tree.
But what if the very fact that we are living in close proximity to trees right now not only made us all more than a bit more stress-free, but healed our cracked hearts in more ways than we ever dreamed?
Even though the Ancient Sacred Book lays open right there on our coffee table that’s made of century old beams hewn from gnarly trees, I’m not sure how closely I’d ever noticed it before?
“All other trees might make us a bit more stress-free,
but only the Tree of Calvary literally frees us.“
How the Living-Spirit Book, it opens our human story with two trees in a garden, the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil — and then tells how it will all end, with only one tree standing, “On each side of the river is the Tree of Life… The tree’s leaves are for the healing of the nations. There will no longer be any curse.” (Rev. 22:2-3 CEV).
All trees will give way to only one Tree of Life: The tree where the God-Man gave the gift of Himself, infinite Love, to pulverize death and destroy all the damning curses and tenderly mend up and heal all our bustedness and trauma.
All other trees might make us a bit more stress-free, but only the Tree of Calvary literally frees us.
The Living-Spirit Book, in the original Greek, could have referred exclusively to the cross (stauros) throughout the text, but instead, surprisingly, it points to the tree (xylos).
The apostles, in the book of Acts, don’t say that Jesus went to the cross but that He sacrificed Himself “on a tree” (5:30; 10:39) — and that He was taken “down from the tree and [they] laid Him in a tomb” (13:29). The holy text says He offered His servant body to bear “our sins in His body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24).
“Everywhere we turn this time of year, Christmas whispers:
Christ’s coming was more than about going to a cross —
but about going to a Tree.“
Everywhere we turn this time of year, Christmas whispers: Christ’s coming was more than about going to a cross — but about going to a Tree.
Why make it a deal that Jesus came down to ultimately go up to a Tree?
The Ancient Jewish Torah reads that “Anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse” (Deut. 21:23 Berean Standard Bible).
Every Christmas tree can testify: Jesus came down to go up to the Tree of Calvary to take every hurt, every curse, and set all the weary captives free.
And , each one artistically depicting story after story, in the family tree of Jesus, which originates from the prophecy, “Then a shoot will spring up from the stump of Jesse, and a Branch from his roots will bear fruit…In that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a banner to the peoples; Him shall the nations seek…” (Isa. 11:1, 11) , are noted as the “original use of the family tree, as a visual representation of a genealogy.”
If you don’t come to Christmas through Christ’s family tree, and you simply come into the Christmas story just right there at the Christmas tree—it’s bewildering to fully understand the meaning of His coming.
Because without the genealogy of Christ?
“The coming of Christ is right through families of messed-up monarchs & battling brothers, through affairs and adultery & more than a feud or two, through skeletons in closets & cheaters at tables.“
“Without the limbs of His past, the branches of His family, the love story of His heart that has been coming for you since before the beginning—how does Christmas and its tree stand? Its roots would be sheared. Its meaning would be stunted. The arresting pause of the miracle would be lost.
The coming of Christ is right through families of messed-up monarchs and battling brothers, through affairs and adultery and more than a feud or two, through skeletons in closets and cheaters at tables.
It was in that time of prophets and kings, the time of Mary and Joseph, that men were in genealogies and women were invisible. But for Jesus, women had names and stories and lives that mattered.
And Jesus claims exactly these who are wandering and wondering and wounded and worn out as His.
He grafts you into His line and His story and His heart, and He gives you His name, His lineage, His righteousness. He graces you with plain amazing grace.
Is there a greater Gift you could want or need or have?
“And Jesus claims exactly these who are wandering and wondering and wounded and worn out as His.“
Christ comes right to your Christmas tree and looks at your family tree and says, “I am your God, and I am one of you, and I’ll be the Gift, and I’ll take you. Take Me?” ~excerpt from The Greatest Gift
And I take up , like a vow of my own committed yes, like I too am being grafted into His family tree.
And that little kid whose family was hurting too deeply to prop up even a Charlie Brown Christmas Tree — she now sets out a wee tree by the kitchen sink, and two starry ones to anchor the hearth, and a forest of flocked ones on the buffet, standing sentinel over a nativity, and then two dwarf trees flanking the dining room table, because the heart knows it:
Time began with two great trees — and time will end, and forever will begin, with only one tree… because of the Triune God gave Himself as the Greatest Gift at Calvary’s Tree.
In Christ, we are never in crisis.
Because Christ stretched out His arms in unending Love over us
on the Cross-Tree,
all our true crises are already over.
And a whole world of hurt, and me, exhales of relief when , because, right here, we’re in proximity to the most healing, calming truth in the whole of the universe:
Because Christ went to the Tree, there is no true crisis. All our brokenness and sadness and sinfulness and darkness and hopelessness is nailed to the Tree and we’re covered in a perfect grace the sets us completely free.
In Christ, we are never in crisis.
Because Christ stretched out His arms in unending Love over us on the Cross-Tree, all our true crises are already over.
Because Christ went to the Tree, in Him, we get the greatest gift of being forever soul-safe.
In Christ,
we are never in crisis,
because our souls are already forever safe in Him.
And all the lights of all the trees flicker, even the sad Charlie Brown ones, igniting hearts with the wonder of a Tree doing more than just making us only a bit more stress-free — but ultimately making us completely free.
****
Want to Hush all the Hurry &Destress Your Soul This Holiday?
Tap play on the video below & come join us on the farm, as we light a candle & take a moment to hush the hurry, and intimately encounter the very real & enfolding presence of Jesus with us here, right here:
Every day, beginning today and right up to Christmas Day, we’re inviting you to the farm to light a candle with us through a small and simple video like this one. Delivered right to your inbox, so that you don’t have to try catch it in the middle of all the noise of the internet, we’ll send it right to your quiet everyday.
To get this visual experience and join us on the farm every day, simply be sure you are subscribed to our email family, so you don’t miss out on any of the daily videos, along with all the beautiful and completely FREE gifts we’ve created for you this Christmas.
JOIN OUR EMAIL FAMILY & WE WILL SEND YOU AN ADVENT VIDEO OF BEAUTY & STILLNESS, RIGHT TO YOUR INBOX EVERY MORNING
And get all 25 of our “Holiday Sticky Notes for Your Soul” as a free printable, available for you to download as part of our bundle of free gifts, with our deepest thanks for being a part of our email family.
With a 2-sided option this year, you can hang these sticky notes up as your own adult Advent calendar, quietly counting the days to Christmas, and giving you the greatest Gift of all:
Spaciousness,
Non-anxiousness,
&
More of His presence,
the Prince of Peace Himself!
JOIN THE LIST HERE & ALL THIS HOLY HUSH OF BEAUTY IS SLIPPED IMMEDIATELY INTO YOUR INBOXRead the whole Christmas Love Story, Tracing Our holy Family Tree, from Creation to Creche, with all 3 of our Advent Books:
The Greatest Gift
(adult edition)
Best Devotional of the Year, ECPA, 2014,
NYTimes Best Seller
Unwrapping the Greatest Gift
(family edition)
Best Inspirational Book
of the Year, CBA, 2016,
NYTimes Best Seller
The Wonder of the Greatest Gift:
Best Devotional &
Gift Book of the Year, Christian Book Association, 2019
(pop-up edition 14 in. tree, 25 days of readings & advent flap calendar, hiding all 25 Biblically inspired ornaments! For any age!)
November 30, 2022
How To Give Our Kids of Any Age The Gift of God’s Grace In Words
A dear, longtime friend of mine, Sally Clarkson‘s words have mentored, encouraged, and inspired me over the years—so I can think of no better person to speak on the power of words. Her wisdom is an endless well to draw from, her kind heart is an inspiration to many, and her dedication to and affection for God are evident enough to inspire anyone she comes across. In her new book, Giving Your Words, which she co-wrote with her husband, Clay, she illustrates how words are an integral part of our children’s faith formation, and offers practical advice and biblical wisdom on growing our vocabulary to include life-giving, faith-molding words. It’s a grace to welcome Sally to the farm’s table today . . .
Guest Post by Sally Clarkson
So, back in 1999, we moved from Texas to Colorado, to the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, in Monument, a bedroom community twenty miles north of downtown Colorado Springs on Interstate 25.
Two miles west of the interstate and Monument Hill, sitting at about the same 7,000-foot altitude, our foothills home was wedged into a man-made hillside cleft with only sprawling acres of national forest for a backyard.
Clay and the boys would spend many hours walking and talking along the trails of Mount Raspberry and Mount Herman, but they also enjoyed a “Boys’ Night In” together at home, taking journeys along more spiritual paths.
The first year in Monument, when Joel was about thirteen and Nathan about eleven, Clay would meet with them every Wednesday night to read aloud and discuss Robert Lewis’s popular book about guiding sons into manhood, Raising a Modern-Day Knight.
It was a strategic and intentional time for nurturing with life-giving words of grace. They would gather in Clay’s comfortable and manly home office, close the door, and enjoy hot chocolate and a homemade treat designed to prime the discussion pump.
They started the time just talking about guy things, to open heart doors, and then they would read and discuss a chapter of the book. Lewis talks about the ideals, ceremonies, community, and legacy of knighthood, so their discussions found many interesting life trails to explore.
Clay purposely used the time to share words of dadly wisdom and lifegiving nurture that would give the boys grace for their lives as they turned the corner from childhood into young manhood.
Grace should taste goodClay and the boys also had their Boys’ Night Out when they would go out to eat, usually at a local fast Italian restaurant with pizza, lots of breadsticks, and the coveted self-serve soft drink machine. It was a time to just eat and talk—feeding their growing-boy appetites and their developing spirits. For them, it was grace that tasted good.
These times together culminated in a special ceremony and blessing Clay had for each boy as he turned thirteen. There was the traditional birthday breakfast, of course, but the afternoon teatime was a ceremony to launch our boy into young manhood. It included scripture readings, personal charges about honor and purity, and prayer, but most of all, it included . . . the sword.
Each boy received a beautiful Knights Templar sword, crafted of fine polished metals in silver and gold plate from Toledo, Spain. It would become a cherished keepsake and reminder of their charge to be a noble knight for God—a man of biblical conviction, integrity, bravery, and honor. Along with the sword, they also received a silver cross pendant or a silver ring, a simple token to remind them of their commitment to Christ.
All the nurturing words given at these special times were words of grace that brought life.
Grace and nurture work together“Biblical nurture is God’s grace given in words.“
Those times were about giving words of grace and nurture.
Since the word grace pops up dozens of times in modern English translations of the New Testament, while the word nurture is literally nowhere to be found, you might wonder why we have them together.
Properly understood, nurture is the act of cultivating life—protecting, preserving, and nourishing a living thing.
Grace, then, is how God gives us His life (it is an unmerited gift), and nurture is how we can give God’s grace of life to one another. It’s not the only way we give grace, but nurture is a spiritually lifegiving act. And we’ll go one step further to say that for children, biblical nurture is God’s grace given in words.
“The life of God is in the words“
That is nowhere more clearly seen than when Paul instructs parents in Ephesians 6:4 to “bring [your children] up in the training and instruction of the Lord” (NIV). However, here’s a paraphrase that better expresses Paul’s admonition: “Parents, stop frustrating your children. Rather, nurture them with the words of instruction and guidance that come from the Lord.”
He uses the term ektrepho, a compound Greek word that taken literally means “to feed from.” Parents were to nurture their children by feeding them with words of “training and instruction.” And those words were to be “of the Lord,” or coming from the life of God, who is now alive in their hearts as parents. Paul’s words reflect the words of the Shema that as Jews they would recite every day: “These words . . . shall be on your heart” (Deuteronomy 6:6).
The life of God is in the words, and children receive those words from nurturing parents.
Paul’s portrait of a nurturing parentIn the Ephesians passage, Paul sets the standard for what Christian parents should do to nurture their children. But in 1 Thessalonians, he creates a word portrait of how that kind of nurturing parent should actually behave. Though he describes his own behavior toward the church using the language of parenting, his words are the clearest picture in the New Testament of Paul’s personal conviction of what a Christian mother and father should be like.
He reminds them that he was “gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children” (2:7). Then he describes his commitment to them, “as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God” (2:11–12 NIV).
And the reason he says he behaved that way is the very heart of giving grace with nurturing words:
“We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well” (2:8 NIV).
Nurture is God’s grace put into wordsPaul clearly makes that connection between words and grace when he instructs the Ephesians to stop using destructive words, and to use only words that build others up according to their needs and “give grace to those who hear” (4:29).
We should not use our words to tear others down, but to build others up in the Lord, so we can give words of grace to them. That’s what words are for—to give grace to others. Tim Kimmel reminds us, “Grace-based parents spend their time entrusting themselves to Christ. They live to know God more. Their children are the daily recipients of the grace these parents are enjoying from the Lord.”1
And that grace will be given in words.
“The highest purpose of the words we give to our children is that words are a means of grace“
The highest purpose of the words we give to our children is that words are a means of grace—they create messages of love, acceptance, and forgiveness that give grace to others. Nurture is God’s grace put into words.
Parents are participants in God’s graceC. S. Lewis, in his essay “Meditation in a Toolshed,” recounts observing a sunbeam shining into a dark shed through a crack above the door. Looking at the beam, he sees only the beam itself. Looking along the beam, he sees the sun and objects within the beam’s path. Lewis says, “We must . . . deny from the outset the idea that looking at is, by its own nature, intrinsically truer than looking along. One must look both along and at everything.”
We can look at the beam of grace as a concept to define and explain it theologically and intellectually—what Scripture says it is and does. However, it isn’t until we look along that beam of grace that we can see what it really is—that God is its source and power, words are its means and form, and it gives life to those along its path.
When we give words of grace to our children, we are looking along that path not only to see how grace gives life, but to be part of the life that it gives.
Whose voice should shape your children?
Bestselling authors and beloved parenting experts Sally and Clay Clarkson suggest the answer is as simple as it is powerful: yours.
Throughout their latest book, Giving Your Words: The Lifegiving Power of a Verbal Home for Family Faith Formation, the Clarksons show parents how to use their own words to shape their children’s lives for Christ.
Giving Your Words helps parents gain confidence to personally and intentionally cultivate a verbal home, one filled with words of faith formation and spiritual nurture.
[ Our humble thanks to Bethany House Publishers for their partnership in today’s devotion. ]
November 29, 2022
Unlock The Door To The Happiest Holiday Season Today
Kristen Welch and I are sorta, kinda, soul sisters? As I’ve served on the board of directors of the ministry Kristen founded, Mercy House Global, and we daily serve together to dream up for you the best #FAIRTRADE beauty of The Grace Flame and The Grace Case that 100% supports the Kenyan maternity homes of Mercy House — so I get to see it first hand again and again, what we can all do together to change the world for women, if we say our brave yes. I am all in here with Kristen, with Mercy House Global, I absolutely love this woman with all my heart — a grace to welcome my soul sister, Kristen, to the farm’s table today…
Guest Post by Kristen Welch
You haven’t really lived — until you’ve been given the last of what others are living on.
Hold up with me — because it’s happened to me more than once.
This time last year, I stood in the doorway of an apartment in Houston with bags of groceries. I was there on a chilly November day with my family on behalf of Mercy House Global to welcome a family from Afghanistan to my city. Due to a hiccup in the resettlement system, hundreds of families were in limbo and it created a massive food insecurity issue.
“You haven’t really lived until you’ve been given the last of what others are living on.“
There were smiles and nods and translated words as we were led to the only furniture in the entire home: a single twin bed.
We sat down, my family of five, lined up one after another and we looked at each other nervously as the host family left the room. The oldest woman in the family returned with one single orange on a plate with a knife.
We watched as our host slowly and carefully cut the single fruit into 5 pieces and handed us each a slice on a napkin. She backed out of the room and we were engulfed with the significance of her gift of hospitality.
We ate it slowly and swallowed the understanding that we had just received the best and maybe even the last of this family’s food.
It’s the kind of generosity that has no words. Maybe that’s why it leaves you speechless…
I experienced this kind of generosity again two months ago when I was in Kenya, visiting the work of Mercy House Global and the 70 pregnant teens that are in some phase of empowerment in their freedom journey to hope. It’s a breathtaking sisterhood of second chances with a lot of diapers.
I sat in the single room home that held more people than square footage and squinted in the oppressive darkness as my eyes adjusted to the lack of light.
“God prospers me not to raise my standard of living, but to raise my standard of giving… God doesn’t look at just what we give. He also looks at what we keep.”
~ Randy Alcorn
This home represented the 70th miracle baby (!!) born at the maternity homes supported by Mercy House Global. We were visiting vulnerable families empowered with dignified work and every door we walked through gave us only the best.
What is it about the world’s “normal” that gives us an up-close look at our own?
Why does my everyday “normal” afford me with options and opportunities for more, when much of the world is forced to make desperate choices, because they have so little?
Here we are on the brink of another holiday season, where we will spend millions of dollars and a 2022 Gallop poll declares we are the unhappiest we’ve been in years.
Those who only spend their money on themselves are the unhappiest people on the planet, according to Giving is the Good Life by Randy Alcorn. So, if keeping everything to ourselves makes us unhappy, then maybe the Bible is correct when it says giving to others will make us happy.
“What are we saving for exactly when the world is dying to be saved?”
“God comes right out and tells us why he gives us more money than we need. It’s not so we can find more ways to spend it. It’s not so we can indulge ourselves and spoil our children. It’s not so we can insulate ourselves from needing God’s provision. It’s so we can give and give generously (2 Cor. 8:14; 9:11).” Alcorn went on to say,“God prospers me not to raise my standard of living, but to raise my standard of giving.”
What are we saving for exactly when the world is dying to be saved?
“It’s curious that the Church has become the most tightfisted at the very time in history when God has provided most generously. There’s considerable talk about the end of the age, and many people seem to believe that Christ will return in their lifetime. But why is it that expecting Christ’s return hasn’t radically influenced our giving? “ writes Randy Alcorn.
“Why is it that people who believe in the soon return of Christ are so quick to build their own financial empires–which prophecy tells us will perish–and so slow to build God’s kingdom?” Randy Alcorn said. “God doesn’t look at just what we give. He also looks at what we keep.”
Hands down, the best holiday memories in my family’s history are the ones where we gave away our time and money to others.
The best gifts we recollect are the ones that are tied to experiences helping others.
We are forever connected with the people we give to because God forever connects us all.
“The world has a need. But it’s no greater than our need to meet it.”
If our quest is happiness this holiday season, the key is not illusive, or beyond our reach.
We stand at the doorway and we hold the key to happiness this holiday season. Jesus said: “Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you” (Luke 6:38).
It is a day that encourages all of us to give back because of what we have received. When we give to Kingdom work, we are giving to God Himself.
He accepts our gift, as if it was given to Him directly.
The world has a need. But it’s no greater than our need to meet it.
Mercy House Global has provided a second chance home to more than 70 teen pregnant teens in their work to empower vulnerable families in Jesus’ name with hope and opportunity.
This month alone, five new girls between the ages of 14 and 15 have been welcomed.
Would you give your best gift today to help Mercy House Global meet urgent needs?
November 28, 2022
The Laments of Advent: When It Doesn’t Feel Like the Light’s Coming Fast Enough
In these darkest days of the year, the very first days of Advent, and the last of a long year, I think that, wrapping a hand round my morning mug of warm, witnessing the sun pull itself out of the snow-blanketed fields and surely rise:
You can’t make light.
Sure, there’s the dance of the twinkle lights, and you can sleuth out the dud bulb on the Christmas Tree and twist in some brilliance, but this is the real epiphany:
All real light really isn’t from here — all real light comes from beyond this world.
All real light really isn’t from here — all real light comes from beyond this world.
Real light is not mined from somewhere in the depths of this rock spinning in a dark cosmos, nor real light grown in trees on some remote mountain slope.
All light comes from beyond this world and we will have to wait for the light to come.
All light always involves waiting…
The Wonder of the Greatest Gift:
40% off! pop-up edition with 14 inch tree, 25 days of readings, & advent flap calendar of 25 Biblically inspired ornaments!
Favorite 25 Day Advent Wreath: Moving the candle light & Mary on a donkey, closer to the waiting manger & the star, every day through December
The Wonder of the Greatest Gift:
40%off! pop-up edition with 14 in tree, 25 days of readings, with advent flap calendar of 25 Biblically inspired ornaments!
Favorite 25 Day Advent Wreath: Moving the candle light & Mary on a donkey, closer to the waiting manger & star, every day through DecemberAt the beginning of our Advent wait, savouring the milky froth heaped on my steeped coffee beans, I can feel the light that’s planking across the old pine floors and my feet.
All the light we see out the window’s been travelling 300,000 km a second, for the last 480 seconds — more than 8 whole minutes since this light left the sun — before it’s finally reached my eye, warmed by feet, twice as long as it takes to steep the cup of coffee in my hand.
All light has always made a journey. And every moment of our existence, since our first breath, we’ve always waited for the light to come.
The light is coming, and light’s literally the very fastest thing in the universe.
We can dare to trust: The light is coming, and light’s literally the very fastest thing in the universe. Nothing has ever travelled as fast as light, and nothing has ever come for you as fast as light. More than 186,000 miles per second — just to get to you, warm you, envelope you, revive you!
Just right before Christmas, in the last days of Advent — we’re slated, according to our calendar squares, to be sitting in an OR waiting room for 6 impossible hours while our littlest girl lies on an operating table while they explore the delicate intricacies of her miraculous heart.
Is the Light really coming?
Is the Light really coming when we’re all living with broken hearts and busted relationships, when time’s ticking loud and parts of our hearts have soundlessly detonated, when lament is the dialect of every honest Advent?
Is there actually more light here than we can ever even see?
Most visible light isn’t most of the light. Nearly all of the light is the light you can’t see. Even when you can’t see the Light, there’s infinite more light right here.
They say that:
The human eye can only observe 0.0035 percent of electromagnetic spectrum. “The light we can see, made up of the individual colors of the rainbow, represents only a very small portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Other types of light include radio waves, microwaves, infrared radiation, ultraviolet rays, X-rays and gamma rays — all are imperceptible to human eyes.”
Most visible light isn’t most of the light.
Nearly all of the light is the light you can’t see.
And in the darkest days of the year, and the first days of Advent, we light a candle and know:
Even when you can’t see the Light, there’s infinite more light right here.
The Wonder of the Greatest Gift:
40% off! pop-up edition of 14 in. tree, 25 days of readings, with advent flap calendar of 25 Biblically inspired ornaments!
The Wonder of the Greatest Gift:
40% off! pop-up edition with 14 in. tree, 25 days of readings, with advent flap calendar of 25 Biblically inspired ornaments!
Favorite Jesse Tree Ornaments: 25 Beautifully Boxed Jesse Tree Ornaments
that co-ordinate with
Unwrapping the Greatest Gift
Favorite 25 Day Advent Wreath: Moving the candle light & Mary on a donkey, closer to the waiting manger & star, every day through DecemberThere is One coming who said “Let there be Light,” and He’s been been coming for us since the very beginning, and when He squalled in the dark of a manger stall, it happened: “those who walked in darkness have seen a great light” (Isa. 9:2).
“There is far more light around you than you can imagine, & the light keeps coming for you far faster than you ever imagined.”
And still, even now, our busted hearts reverberate with the reality of His beckoning words, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12) because “in Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:4–5).
I rock our baby girl with a broken heart, real close, and count here and now, this present moment, a gift.
This is our holy work of Advent: Stay awake and keep watch and know the reality is that there is far more light around us that any eye can see.
There is more light around you than you can imagine, and the light keeps coming for you far faster than you ever imagined.
And she’s leans forward and unexpectedly kisses the tip of my nose and I can feel her smile.
Radiant.
Brilliant.
there’s the Light of the whole Christmas Love Story,
from Creation to the Creche,
3 Advent Books For the Whole Family:
The Greatest Gift
(adult edition)
Best Devotional of the Year, ECPA, 2014, NYTimes Best Seller
(family edition)
Best Inspirational Book of the Year, CBA, 2016, NYTimes Best Seller
The Wonder of the Greatest Gift:
Best Devotional & Gift Book of the Year, CBA, 2019
(pop-up edition with your own 14 inch tree, 25 days of readings, 25 day advent flap calendar, hiding all 25 Biblically inspired ornaments! For any age)
November 26, 2022
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins For Your Weekend [11.26.2022]
Happy, happy, happy weekend!
Come along with us here because who doesn’t need a bit of good news?
Let yourself smile, be crazy inspired, laugh, love & really live the gift of this life
just a little bit more this weekend…
Serving up only the Good Stuff for you & your people right here:
Photography by Meg Loeks
Photography by Meg Loeks
Photography by Meg Loeks
Photography by Meg Loeks
Photography by Meg Loeks<< grin >>
the way she captures the passing of time…just pure joy!
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Ann Voskamp (@annvoskamp)
“Christ the King”: A Sonnet … worth sitting with, by one of my favorite poets, Malcolm Guite
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Good News Movement (@goodnews_movement)
Speaking the language of love: a little boy signs a song to his mother who is deaf.
the astounding thing these officers do this thanksgiving –
building relationships can start in so many ways, even through giving.
#BeTheGift
YES! The more the merrier! The Miracle Ham (!!)
And maybe it’s true — the more we live given,
the more joy we have to give… beautiful!
#BeTheGift
When your heart’s crushed and really the last thing you want to do is give thanks.
Gratitude doesn’t say that we blithely ignore all the excruciating things and simply accept the status-quo,but
gratitude means that we intentionally notice all the everyday things,
and accept God’s grace, in all things, with thanks.
DON’T MISS THIS:
How Gratitude is the Lens No One Can Really Afford to Lose, in a Really Hurting World
Read the whole story…View this post on InstagramA post shared by Ann Voskamp (@annvoskamp)
“This is my song
I was one way * But now I am different
There was a clear change in * A Holy collision
Who I was * And who I’ll forever be
And He was the in between“
View this post on InstagramA post shared by @fantastic.cow
Might we all need to go buy ourselves one of these cows? I’m thinking so!
And all that little voice telling us good morning? So precious!!
View this post on InstagramA post shared by ᴠɪᴄᴛᴏʀ ᴛʜᴏᴍᴘsᴏɴ (@victorthompson_)
sometimes we just need to say it aloud – God is great!
“Our greatest calling is to whisper to others, “God is Beautiful.” Yes, one thousand times over, yes!!
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Fav | Poetry Podcaster (@legitfavour)
– just stunningly beautiful poetry for the soul –
“To Whom Much Has Been Given” — this Thanksgiving Story? It’s what this season, what a life of joy, really looks like.
Moved me deeply — I want to live like this.
GAH! Maybe all our waiting — isn’t what we think it’s about.
Maybe our waiting — is in expectation of not getting, but always how we will get to live given
#BeTheGift
@jackiehillperryduh ♬ original sound – Jackie Hill Perry
now that’s a reminder we all need – so powerful!
Want a peace-full Christmas this year?
Want to breathe deep and experience the hope, peace, joy, and love of Jesus?
This FREE 4-week Advent journey will gently guide you to discover how to exhale your stress and anxiety and inhale the peace and calm of Christ this Christmas.
Each week, beginning Nov 27 (TOMORROW!) you’ll get:
A breath prayer that coordinates with that week of Advent (hope, peace, love, & joy + a bonus email on Christmas Day).A short audio “podcast” with a guided breath prayer and short reflection with encouragement for your week.A printable pocket prayer card + downloadable lock screen to point your heart toward truth.In addition, immediately after signing up, you’ll get access to free gifts and resources, including a 35-page Christmas Anxiety Toolkit, full of printable resources to help you manage your anxiety through the season!
Sign up for the completely FREE “Breath from Heaven” Christmas series
& breathe peace into this Christmas season.
@mrsmelaninThis is your reminder that expressing your needs is not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength. We’re not meant to do this thing called life alone. Allow others to be there for you!
♬ Music In Your Heart (Instrumental) – BLVKSHP#lifeisbettertogether #mrsmelanin #anaya_tok #chocolatebabies #beleafinfatherhood #mommydaughter #mommyandme #momsoftiktok #blackmoms #blacklove #love
oh be still my heart! what we can ALL learn from this little girl!
a snack that tastes amazing & fills your home with the smells of the season? Yes, please!
Tonight is the Night Before Advent! And I know no better story to share than This one:
A Story For Advent Eve: The Legacy, The Light & The Lamb, & The Story That Wins WarsThe reality is:
You are made of stories, and all of your life, you are living through a Story Skirmish. You are made by the Word, and you are made of more than cells, and what story gets to tell your cells how to be?
You could be part of a winning story. Your weekend — and your heart — really needs this story:
A Story For Advent Eve: The Legacy, The Light & The Lamb, & The Story That Wins Wars (Free ‘Night Before Advent’ Kit)And did you see?!…The sheep crashed our Advent Party!
Want to throw your own “Night Before Advent” Party?(sheep not included)
The Eve of Advent is here!
And we all get to begin! With everything you need for the Annual Tradition of a “Night Before Advent” Hot Chocolate Party, completely redesigned for this Christmas, all FREE for our email list subscribers!
a “Celebrate Christ” bannerthe Hot Chocolate Part invite Hot Chocolate Station signs Frameable Prints to focus hearts on the reason for the season.Tags for your own Night Before Advent Box — to wrap up new holiday pajamas, and Advent books to focus hearts on Jesus for the entire Christmas season. And the printable poem: “The Night Before Advent”Not only will real hope, from my heart to yours, be emailed directly to your inbox, but too? You get free access to our really amazing whole Resource Library, including all the most recent free tools and frameables, AND our new GORGEOUS free ezine – all exclusive tools we’ve made just for you — hopeful, helpful resource of gifts for you!
AND–we have even more free, exclusive Advent gifts (!!) for you coming in the weeks ahead!
Join the list right here to not miss anything!
The Greatest Gift
(adult edition)
Best Devotional of the Year, ECPA, 2014, NYTimes Best Seller
(family edition)
Best Inspirational Book of the Year, CBA, 2016, NYTimes Best Seller
The Wonder of the Greatest Gift:
Best Devotional & Gift Book of the Year, CBA, 2019
(pop-up edition with your own 14 inch tree, 25 days of readings, 25 day advent flap calendar, hiding all 25 Biblically inspired ornaments! For any age)
So you don’t miss out on Jesus this year & the The Greatest Christmas.
This Advent, the tried and true traditions will hold us and the new ones will ignite us and this is the truest story I know:
Cradle-to-Cross Wreath
Processed with VSCO with ss1 preset
that coordinate with Unwrapping the Greatest GiftWhen our holidays are about Staying in the Story, being with Him — Peace leads us — and we can have ourselves The Greatest little Christmas yet!
A Whole Collection of Heirloom Pieces to Help you Stay in the Story this Advent Season
It seems everyone is touting their own version of an Advent calendar this year, BUT what actually is Advent!?
oh yes, we know it–
the world screams hurry, rush, do it all this season,
but what if this weekend, you took a pause to relax, to enjoy, to breathe deep
and remember the God of the Universe, the One it’s really all about anyway?
“There’s only One strong enough to save
There’s only One who overcame the grave
There’s only One whose worthy of all praise
His name is Jesus…
His name is Wonderful Counselor,
Almighty God”
[from our Facebook community–join us?]
…did you see what just happened there?
We just passed through the gateway that is Thanksgiving
& into the holidays & all the joy our hearts can hold!
Makes sense — that the gate into the holidays [holy-days]
would be Thanksgiving…
“Enter into His presence through the gate of THANKSGIVING —
& in His presence is fullness of JOY”
Ps.100:4, Ps16:11
Because the deal is?
When thanks to God becomes your habit,
joy in God becomes your life.
So — when the holidays get hard,
just take a deep breath & remember how
you always get into the holidays & JOY —
through that gateway: Thanksgiving.
Hold on through the holidays:
JOY IS ALWAYS POSSIBLE —
because there is always, always something to be THANKFUL for!
– From One Thousand Gifts
That’s all for this weekend, friends.
Go slow. Be God-struck. Grant grace. Live Truth.
Give Thanks. Love well. Re – joy, re- joy, ‘re- joys’ again
Share Whatever Is Good.
November 25, 2022
A Story For Advent Eve: The Legacy, The Light & The Lamb, & The Story That Wins Wars (Free ‘Night Before Advent’ Kit)
I call my Mama on a Thursday afternoon, just right before Advent, and we swap tender stories, like we are actually made of stories, like we need stories to be… to breathe.
My phone says we trace the contours of our stories for 47 minutes, but I don’t know how long I stand afterward, over a disheveled pile of papers at my desk, and just let a couple year’s grief soundlessly unload.
Maybe it’s because we’re all in a bit of a Story Skirmish, over which story we tell ourselves in our hearts— about us and life —- and which stories will win in our minds.
“We’re all in a bit of a Story Skirmish, over which story we tell ourselves in our minds— about us and life —- and which stories will win in our hearts.“
And it’s brutally hard living through a Story Skirmish — over which story will be our truest story, when, for all kinds of reasons, we’re wild to change parts of the story we’re in.
For the first time in my life, my Mama now lives hours and hours and a mocking stretch of road away from us all here.
When our phone call’s stretches to the part where we say goodbye, the raw edge of her heart whispers, “I’m just so missing you all, Ann,” she wipes her cheek with the back of her hand,” — just so terribly homesick for you all, that’s all.”
And we haven’t even talked about the unspeakable losses, the chairs that are achingly, permanently, empty at the table this holiday.
There’s no filling them.
And there’s no going back, and how do you keep moving forward in a story when you so desperately want to change parts of the story, when parts of you want to go back to another time where you and all your hope came from?
I pull on boots and wind a trail of questions, through the snow, to the hushed quiet of the woods and sit with a fire, like there’s a way to burn through everything and follow a pillar of fire forward.
A friend texts that her son has cut their family off, severed all family ties. The silence’s scorching her.
It’s the holidays.
It’s almost Advent.
And all our families move tender, and the ache is real, and what’s the realest story we’re telling ourselves, about ourselves and our world, and where have we come from, and where our family’s actually going to?
It’s almost the night before Advent, and if we miss the story that comes before His coming, we miss the point of the story.
It’s almost the night before Advent,
and if we miss the story that comes before His coming,
we miss the point of the story.
Advent begins with the story that comes before His coming — the story of family and broken hearts and busted dreams and estranged relationships.
Advent begins with a genealogy.
That’s what goes on sale always about this time of year: all the genealogy tests.
And it’s also true this time of year: The genealogy at the beginning of the Gospels is a kind of good news genealogy test for all of humanity.
Diety came bodily.
The Maker of human beings has come as a human being.
And it strikes me hard every Advent:
The first heretics where the ones that said Jesus wasn’t one of us.
In all kinds of ways, we’ve all been a bunch of deniers — either denying that Jesus is divine… or denying that He had any human DNA in His holy veins.
The tendency is to deny either Jesus’ actual humanity,
or Jesus’ authentic divinity,
so as a to try to deny that Jesus has any genuine claim over our identity.
The tendency is to deny either Jesus’ actual humanity, or Jesus’ authentic divinity, so as a to try to deny that Jesus has any genuine claim over our identity.
But Advent begins by climbing the family tree of God so we can grip it, hold on to it:
The Maker of every one of us — has become one of us. Really: Jesus is one of us. God, in the flesh, is here, and He is our flesh and blood — and gave all of Himself, to rescue us from all the ache of ourselves.
No matter our story, or our hurting family?
The legacy we can leave for all the generations ahead of us, is the story of all the generations behind us, the generations like us, that fell behind, that fell apart, that fell from grace — still fell into Arms that call them, “Beloved.”
History repeats itself, unless we repeat the story of our history to ourselves.
Our Lineage leads to a Lamb who is Light in the dark and Love in the hard.
Unless we tell the story that we come from a bunch of jacked up down and outers, a bunch who were jealous and self-zealous and closeted-rebellious, that we come from good-looking people who weren’t really that good or faithful —- then we will never know that God never stops being faithful to exactly those kind of people.
Our legacy can be telling all our people:
Our Lineage leads to a Lamb who is Light in the dark and Love in the hard.
If our people don’t know where we’re from, they won’t know where they’re going, and they’ll go in the wrong direction that can never make anything right.
“You are made of stories, and all of your life, you are living through a Story Skirmish. You are made by the Word and you are made of more than cells and what story gets to tell your cells how to be?“
The reality is:
You are made of stories, and all of your life, you are living through a Story Skirmish.
You are made by the Word and you are made of more than cells and what story gets to tell your cells how to be?
The story that severs?
The story that cuts you off from all hope of change, that slices you off from being wanted and seen and always beloved?
The story that lies, that says there isn’t enough love in the surging heart of God to suture your wounds, that your heart’s too busted and bruised to be bound back together by the scarred hands that hung the stars and hung on a cross because your name was engraved in His hands and his heart is hung up on yours?
The story that hisses that your life, your story, your sin, your choices, your trauma, all your scars you never asked for, somehow slice you off from a new hope, a new heart, a new healing rising, to make you whole?
Or is there a more consoling, more comforting story that is infinitely deeper and truer?
It could happen:
The story that wins in our hearts and minds, can be the one that has already won, the winning one, the one tells your cells that you are always soul safe, that you aren’t being abandoned but are always being made new, that you are wholly seen and wholly surrounded by a love story for all eternity.
“The Word writes belovedness into you bones, and certain eternal safety into your spine, and is rewriting and rewiring all the curling neurons in your mind to wind around the tenderness of His touch, surrendering to the caressing ways of His hands.“
The Word writes belovedness into you bones, and certain eternal safety into your spine, and is rewriting and rewiring all the curling neurons in your mind to wind around the tenderness of His touch, surrendering to the caressing ways of His hands.
There is one true story that tells your cells where you’re really from, and you get to Stay in that Story, unwrap that story, the love story that’s been coming for you since the very beginning —- one each of need to know in the marrow of our bones, to heal the cracks of our broken hearts:
You are from out of this world and you are birthed from the love dance of the Trinity, and you are from the breath that breathes whole galaxies and from the imagination that strings up the stars.
You are from I AM and manna and miracles and bread and wine made into more, and you are reborn at the tree of Calvary and renamed because your name has always been on His lips and etched right into His skin.
You are from holy ground and Mount Zion and hope that rolls back stones to always keep rising and you are from Holy Spirit and Son of Man and Abba Father and and you are from Love, and you, and Love, both, are never going to end.
Your realest story is that you’re from relentless resurrections and split seas and walking on waves and littlest loaves and fishes always multiplied and the smallest mustard seeds of faith made into impossible mountain movers.
You’re from the smile of God and His infinite delight in you that moves Him to crooning love songs over your soul.
You are from glory, through glory, to glory, so all is gloriously well, you living a glory story from this moment right into forever and always, without end.
Every living human being is living a Story Skirmish in their cells, a war of words that determines the way that will be —- and which word will win and have its way in our veins?
Only when the Word has the final word in the very real story skirmishes within your cells, your cerebrum, your souls, do you finally really win.
And the way the Word has the final word in your interior word wars, about you and your heartbreak and broken dreams and all kinds of grief — is to Stay in the Story, the story that consoles, comforts, that whispers God is one of us, that He gets our family tree, He gets our heartbreak and went to the Tree of Calvary, the Lamb of God who brings light to our darkest worlds.
Stay in the Story that wins in the end — because this is how to be winning now.
The way through trials is not to put God on trial, but to lean on God, talk to Him, stay in Him, through yours.
And in the dark of the woods, I sit under snow blanketed trees, in this season of trees, and there’s a family tree we all need to hold on to, the genealogy of God, that is the Story of Hope that we could give to each other:
All of us out on a limb are grafted in.
And I read it, there in the poem I read to the kids every year on the The Night Before Advent:
Away from the stresses, we flew like a prayer,
Simply opened our hands and made room to prepare.
For the Light of the World to warm every dark space,
a lustre of hope cupped in every cold place.
Till what to our wandering hearts should appear,
Murmurings of a King, and Love drawing near.
Advent unwraps wonder, the Greatest Gift ever dreamed,
so come adore Him, the One who redeemed
all the willing and wanting, with real Advent Awe
a sacred, slow Unwrapping of a season of God.
~ from “The Night Before Advent” poem
And I’m warmed right through.
All of us lonely and far from home, all of us feeling burned and cut off, we are enfolded in His love, and belong in His fold, right there with the wee flock of sheep, who were the first to welcome His first Advent coming.
The legacy we can give each other this Christmas is the Light of the Lamb.
Sitting there in the snow with the lambs, the dark of the woods look all lit.
On the Eve of Advent, we all get to share a better Story —the story that wins all our wars
The Eve of Advent is here!
And we all get to begin! With everything you need for the Annual Tradition of a “Night Before Advent” Hot Chocolate Party, completely redesigned for this Christmas, all FREE for our email list subscribers!
a “Celebrate Christ” bannerthe Hot Chocolate Part invite Hot Chocolate Station signs Frameable Prints to focus hearts on the reason for the season.Tags for your own Night Before Advent Box — to wrap up new holiday pajamas, and Advent books to focus hearts on Jesus for the entire Christmas season. And the printable poem: “The Night Before Advent”Not only will real hope, from my heart to yours, be emailed directly to your inbox, but too? You get free access to our really amazing whole Resource Library, including all the most recent free tools and frameables, AND our new GORGEOUS free ezine – all exclusive tools we’ve made just for you — hopeful, helpful resource of gifts for you!
AND–we have even more free, exclusive Advent gifts (!!) for you coming in the weeks ahead!
Join the list right here to not miss anything!
the whole Christmas Love Story, from Creation to the Creche,
3 Advent Books For the Whole Family:
The Greatest Gift
(adult edition)
Best Devotional of the Year, ECPA, 2014, NYTimes Best Seller
(family edition)
Best Inspirational Book of the Year, CBA, 2016, NYTimes Best Seller
The Wonder of the Greatest Gift:
Best Devotional & Gift Book of the Year, CBA, 2019
(pop-up edition with your own 14 inch tree, 25 days of readings, 25 day advent flap calendar, hiding all 25 Biblically inspired ornaments! For any age)
COME! Click here THE GREATEST LITTLE CHRISTMAS
So you don’t miss out on Jesus this year & the The Greatest ChristmasNovember 22, 2022
How to have the Best Holidays & Unexpectedly get the Biggest Piece of the Pie
How am I so flattened with grace to get to welcome to the big farm kitchen table my oldest son, Caleb, steward of The Keeping Company, and his wife of a little over a year, whom I affectionately call Miss Melba Mills, with her own story of giving to mirror a giving story our son, Caleb, shared last year of ideas, dreams, and creations for the Glory of God! How we are in for a treat — and the loveliest collection of pies!
Guest post by Melba Pearson Voskamp with Caleb Voskamp
So, as you may or may not know, Caleb and I have been married a little over a year. Some of you may even know that before we dated, Caleb and I were both homeschooled, and took online classes together, classes in which Caleb had a bit of a crush on me and tried to catch my eye, and I was…otherwise preoccupied.
But, very few people may know that long before high school, when young Caleb was creating the first Cradle-to-Cross Wreath and The Keeping Company was just a twinkle in his entrepreneurial eye, I was – quite literally – cooking up some entrepreneurial schemes of my own.
(In fact, Caleb didn’t even know this story until just a few months ago. He stared at me in shock and awe, and I laughed: “How have I never told you the story of the pies?!”)
Ah…so, the story of the pies…
Caleb and Melba have been married for a bit over a year, starting a new chapter in their magical, by-the-grace-of-God love story.
The Cradle-to-Cross Advent Spiral and the Messiah Manger are the culmination of many of Caleb’s dreams, and years of creativity. 
At 14, Caleb was thoughtfully sanding away, creating the first ever Cradle-to-Cross Wreath, little idea of what was yet to come…
And in a kitchen far away, little Melba was cooking up some dreams and ideas of her own…The , one of Caleb’s most recent creations. 
Five-year-old Melba, decked out in her apron, preparing to bake her first batch of Thanksgiving pies.
Cradle-to-Cross Advent Spiral, Caleb’s idea for helping others keep intentional and thoughtful company with Christ through the Holy Seasons.
Little Caleb, dreaming and creating…
One of the very first Cradle-to-Cross wreaths, handmade by Caleb himself, the beginning of what is now Caleb and Melba’s dream come true.
Cradle-to-Cross Advent Spiral and Messiah Manger, another one of Caleb’s clever and beautifully meaningful creations.
All grown up Melba (who still loves to bake pies…)
All grown up Caleb, still dreaming and creating…
Cradle-to-Cross Advent Spiral and Messiah Manger It started about this time of year, almost 23 years ago.
I was 5, making my Christmas wish list. I had a photo in a catalog of a beautiful baby doll, in a pink dress with a bow, with a little pram and cradle to match. I had no idea how much the beautiful baby doll might cost, nor how much my parents may, or may not, have budgeted for Christmas gifts that yea.r
I just knew that I wanted nothing else.
When I asked for the doll and her accessories, I was told gently, but firmly, that it was all a bit much for Christmas alone, and would I perhaps consider waiting until next year to ask for the pram and cradle?
My little 5 year-old self was vehemently against that idea; my mom and I had several conversations in which I tried to explain it was really an all or nothing situation, and given how much I wanted the doll, in my mind, it was really just an all situation.
So, my parents devised A Plan.
I could ask for the doll for Christmas, but if I wanted the pram and cradle, I would need to make the money myself. Apparently, for 5 year-olds, money making opportunities are scarce. But! Fortunately, I had just learned to make pumpkin pie! My favorite food ever!
My mom had an idea! Why don’t I sell Thanksgiving pies?
So, sitting down at our kitchen table, she helped me write “pumpkin pie” on a sheet of paper, and I went to my neighbor and asked if they wanted to buy a Thanksgiving pie.
I don’t remember how many pie orders I had, but I do remember making the pies and delivering them, with the help and guidance of my parents. When we counted the money I had made, we discovered it was almost 4 times what I needed! I was shocked! Even my parents were somewhat surprised!
I had to decide what to do with the extra money, and this was a daunting task for a little girl with everything she ever really needed. If I had the baby doll, pram, and cradle, there was honestly, literally, nothing else I could imagine wanting.
The next Sunday at church, we heard about an orphanage in India.
“I was going to give something truly meaningful to someone I had never even met.”
We heard about the children – my age – who lived there, what they liked to do, what they liked to eat. They loved fresh fruit, but rarely had access to any. The concept was foreign to me; I couldn’t imagine not having fresh fruit.
So, I asked if I could use my leftover pie money to buy fresh fruit for those children just like me. We found out that I could; the leftover money could give one child a piece of fresh fruit every single day for a year! I was so excited! I was going to give something truly meaningful to someone I had never even met.
The next Thanksgiving, I knew a child’s year of fresh fruit was ending, and I wanted to continue giving.
The pie sale entered its second year. We added cranberry walnut and pecan pies to the list, and kept the oven running, and made even more pies…
The brand new , designed by Caleb and specially re-released just last month. 
The brand new Beeswax Numbered Candle, designed by Caleb specifically to accompany the Cradle-to-Cross Advent Spiral. 
Fast forward a little (or a lot)…
Every single Thanksgiving, from the time I was 5 years old to my freshman year at Harvard, I made and sold Thanksgiving pies, donating the money, thousands and thousands of dollars, to orphanages in India. Eventually, I was able to add digging fresh water wells to the fresh fruit each year.
And as I told Caleb this pie story, I remembered so many sweet things about my pie making endeavors…
I remember standing up in front at church, announcing my Pie Project, and mingling during coffee hour in the fellowship hall, with a clipboard, taking orders.
I can still clearly remember getting up at 5am every morning of Thanksgiving week to get pies in the oven, while my favorite Christmas music played softly while I measured, stirred, and poured.
And I remember staying up late into the night to get the last of the pies into the oven, Christmas music blaring a little louder, whisk acting as microphone.
But mostly, I remember counting at the end of the sale, pencil to paper, calculator in hand, discovering how much I could continue giving.
I have never forgotten the children in India. Their impact on me was profound. As a 5 year-old who had everything she could possibly want in the form of a single baby doll, I felt a deep conviction to give children like me something, too.
The photo I received after I donated that very first year is still vivid in my mind.
I received a letter and a photo of a little girl who enjoyed the fruit, and the smile on her face lit up the room, even from the flat, matte photo paper.
I remember thinking she looked happier with her single piece of fruit than that baby doll ever made me feel.
“The ability to touch someone, to make them smile like that, meant far, far more than any doll or toy I could ever imagine.“
And I knew, even then, the ability to touch someone, to make them smile like that, meant far, far more than any doll or toy I could ever imagine.
At 5 years old, I discovered the joy of giving. And I discovered the joy of working for others in a selfless way. That’s not to say I never grumbled while baking a pie, but I learned:
“Nothing is as rewarding as giving of yourself – your time, your talents, your treasures, or even a little of all three – out of love and care, simply because.“
Nothing is as rewarding as giving of yourself – your time, your talents, your treasures, or even a little of all three – out of love and care, simply because.
And the story continues: today, in honor of the Pie Project tradition, Caleb and I are expanding our core mission of giving at The Keeping Company. Last year, with the support of families who celebrated the Holy Days with the resources available at The Keeping Company, together we all filled 41 farmyards and stables around the world through Compassion International (!!), impacting countless families and changing whole communities!
This year, we are committed to continuing the story of giving, by filling stables and digging wells.
Caleb and I are humbled to see how the heart and story of the Pie Project and the Cradle-to-Cross Wreath can weave together, with your family too, to bless others, to bring smiles to small faces, to share the light of the Gospel and the hope of Christ with the world.
Our mission, both little Caleb on a farm in Canada and little Melba in a kitchen in Colorado, has been to give, and as we have become creators together, the mission of our company has become creating to give to others, sharing the light of Christ so that all may know His love and grace.
Cradle-to-Cross Advent Spiral and Messiah Manger 
The Messiah Manger 
The dream of the first cradle-to-cross wreath still lives on…
The Light Gift 
Caleb and Melba are still dreaming and creating…together…
And the legacy of the Pie Project continues…
…in the Cradle-to-Cross Wreath, The Messiah Manger...…The…
…The Light Gift…
And the Advent and Lenten Devotionals, the most recent of Melba’s endeavors, written to accompany Caleb’s original little dream…
Although I don’t bake pies en masse anymore, I still turn up the Christmas music and put pencil to paper to create meaningful resources that can accompany Caleb’s beautiful heirloom pieces, in the hopes that all of us who want to experience the daily company of Christ in these holy seasons can also continue our stories of giving.
“So, we invite you to join us! Wait with us in hope for the Hope we all so desperately need! Draw closer to the Light of the World! And keep company with Christ like never before.“
From my very first little book, The Light Gift, and its companion wooden Manger and carved wooden star overhead… to the family heirloom Cradle-to-Cross Advent countdown wreath, (accompanied by the Names of Jesus Advent Devotionals that were my “Pie Project” last year)… to any of our other beautiful handcrafted items…
Caleb and I truly love creating deeply meaningful and practical resources that are all beautiful heirloom traditions for families to keep company with Christ. And, through creating, we are humbled to partner with you to keep giving new hope to families in need around the world.
So, we invite you to join us! Wait with us in hope for the Hope we all so desperately need! Draw closer to the Light of the World! And keep company with Christ like never before.
And as we dream of pies and new ideas, we sincerely wish you and yours…
The happiest, warmest, and most joyful, Christ-filled Christmas.
Join in this story of giving, and experience Christ like never before, sharing Hope with those who need it most.
Join us this Advent in beginning life-changing traditions; experience the joy of giving, and keep close and intentional company with Christ from the cradle, to the cross.
The Keeping Company is a “not-just-for-profit” — a portion of all proceeds from all Keeping Company heirlooms goes to dig fresh water wells and fill stables and farmyards around the world with Compassion International, filling the hearts of families in need with hope.
Together, we can experience the joy and hope of God’s Greatest Gift, and share His light and love with the world!
November 21, 2022
How Gratitude Is The Lens No One Can Really Afford to lose, in a Really Hurting World
To tell you the truth, right in the middle of this annual little dare to write down dozens of gifts and graces every day that I was thankful for, my spectacles snapped right in half one morning mid-November, and I became about as blind as a bat.
What’s on the screen? No idea?
What’s really at me feet? You tell me?
How’s the recipe reading? You kidding me?
Without the right kind of lens, your whole world warps wrong.
Photographer: Our Little Shiloh, the little amateur shepherdess 
“The bridge to joy breaks, and the whole world blurs, when we lose our lens of gratitude.“
Without a pair of lenses to push up the bridge of my nose, my everydays ended up looking a lot like me looking at things real hard, screwing and squinting eyes up tight, leaning in, trying to decipher the code and shape of this old world.
Without wading into the comedy of errors that landed me there, I was the girl in a daunting super-aisle at Home Depot groping around for the right kind of glue with certain bonding super-powers, to successfully hold the nose bridge of said broken specs, to the lens — only to have the glue hold the wobbly bridge of my glasses for not long enough, so eventually there was no bridging back to the land of the seeing.
The bridge kept breaking.
And the whole world blurred.
No text was large enough, near or far.
No facial expressions across any room were striking enough for me to read.
No sign in any part of our neck of the woods had a font large enough for me not to be one very severe safety hazard on the roads.
“When we don’t have enough of the right focus, the world never seems right enough. When we don’t give thanks enough, nothing in the world seems like enough.“
Standing in front of the kitchen window with my cup of steaming coffee, looking out at a November morning, my joy-dare, gratitude journal there on the counter, that’s about the only thing I could see clearly:
The bridge to joy breaks, and the whole world blurs, when we lose our lens of gratitude.
It’s a complicated, unjust, profoundly heartbreaking world, and it’s also true that:
When we don’t have enough of the right focus, the world never seems right enough.
When we don’t give thanks enough, nothing in the world seems like enough.
What we have right now, where we are right now, our whole worlds right now, never seem to be enough, when the way we are seeing things is out of focus.
This is painfully true, that there are deep wrongs in the world and in our world, and all kinds of ache that desperately needs righted, and it’s also true that:
Without a lens of gratitude, everything looks like lack.
Photographer: Our Little Shiloh, the little amateur shepherdess 
Photographer: Our Little Shiloh, the little amateur shepherdess 
Gratitude doesn’t say that we blithely ignore all the excruciating things and simply accept the status-quo, but gratitude means that we intentionally notice all the everyday things, and accept God’s grace, in all things, with thanks.
Every screen we turn to, and every road we turn down, keeps saying that we don’t have enough, that we need more, need to buy more, need to have more, need to be more. But the bridge to joy actually holds when we can whisper thanks more.
Giving thanks is what always gives us back our vision.
Gratefulness lets us see that, in the midst of great pain, there is still great grace, enough grace, real grace.
Gratitude doesn’t say that we blithely ignore all the excruciating things and simply accept the status-quo, but gratitude means that we intentionally notice all the everyday things, and accept God’s grace, in all things, with thanks.
“We ought to give thanks for all,” is what C. S. Lewis wrote. “If it is good, because it is good; if bad, because it works in us patience, humility,… and the hope of our eternal country.”
Which means:
We can give thanks in all — because everything is already good, or God is working it all into good.
So all is grace.
I wrote it once, more than a decade ago, and I only believe it more, after more trauma in the last few years than I ever could have imagined would happen when I wrote those lines:
“I know there is poor and hideous suffering, and I’ve seen the hungry and the guns that go to war. I have lived pain, and my life can tell: I only deepen the wound of the world when I neglect to give thanks for early light dappled through leaves and the heavy perfume of wild roses in early July and the song of crickets on humid nights and the rivers that run and the stars that rise and the rain that falls and all the good things that a good God gives.” ~excerpt from One Thousand Gifts
We can give thanks in all — because everything is already good, or God is working it all into good.
Contemplating the gifts and goodness of God with thanksgiving, moves you to be an activist to pass those gifts and grace and goodness of God out into a hurting world, living given.
Thanksgiving … becomes living given.
After my glued-together glasses break yet again, I finally just order new glasses and wait for the new lenses to wing their way to me over this world that’s hurting in all kinds of ways.
And together, we weep, and we ache, and we still give thanks, because the one lens we can’t ever afford to lose is the lens of gratitude.
Because the lens of gratefulness lets us see how there is still great grace in the world, and we actually are the ones who have enough grace, and enough gifts and giftedness, to be part of bringing great change, and greater grace, into the world.
The lens of gratitude lets us see hope — because it lets us see the face of God still here.
Turns out, everywhere you look:
This can be a far-sighted world that can’t see how God is far closer than ever imagined, and He is still working all the hardest things into far more gifts, and more good, than ever could be imagined.
And, it’s about this time of year, in the midst of these sacred everydays, I pull out my gratitude list of gifts — and pens have eyes to see, and ink giving thanks is a soul lens, and all can be glass to God.
The last of the leaves fall.
And the thanks still rises on, like an awakening that can’t be stopped.
Through the holidays,want to hold on to a lens of gratitude?CURL IN WITH OUR FREE E-Magazine
Our brand new, 88 page, free e-Magazine, THE SACRED EVERYDAY, hands you that lens we all desperately need:
free, practical printables for your own Gratitude Jarprompts for your gratitude list gratitude journaling sheetsour family recipesa 25 point SANITY MANIFESTO for the holidays end of fall checklist, to seize the last gifts of fall
AND BONUS: NEW FARM VIDEO-BLOGS from our harvest this year, featuring the Farmer and kids, and the miraculous back story of our little Stone Church
THAT’S ALL A FREE GIFT, an 88 page Free E-Magazine, The SACRED EVERYDAY.JOIN THE LIST HERE: GET THE 88 PAGE FREE E-MAGAZINE TODAY
Subscribe to The List & Get the 88-page Sacred Everyday E-Magazine FREENovember 19, 2022
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins For Your Weekend [11.19.2022]
Happy, happy, happy weekend!
Come along with us here because who doesn’t need a bit of good news?
Let yourself smile, be crazy inspired, laugh, love & really live the gift of this life
just a little bit more this weekend…
Serving up only the Good Stuff for you & your people right here:
Tim Holt – Photographer
Tim Holt – Photographer
Tim Holt – Photographer
Tim Holt – Photographer
Tim Holt – Photographerexhale this weekend, and enjoy the glory of our good God
It’s no secret how we love sheep around here! But when we see Him as our Good Shepherd?
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Ann Voskamp (@annvoskamp)
Giving thanks is always worth it,
because the fight for joy is always worth it,
and God is always worthy of it.
how these two overcome poverty and everything working against them?
to become an inspiration and solution?
< cheering wildly for these brave & creative ones! >
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Good News Movement (@goodnews_movement)
oh my! how they sacrifice to cheer and celebrate another’s victory – so moving!
View this profile on InstagramSteve McCurry (@stevemccurryofficial) • Instagram photos and videos
Wow, wow, wow!
Steve’s work spans conflicts, ancient traditions, and culture, yet always shows what it means to be human.
oh what a song for this week!
A giant, beautiful, full-of-wonder e-magazine coming right to your inbox on MONDAY!As one big THANK YOU for being a part of our email family!
We are SO excited to get this beauty in your hands in time for the holidays!
Truly, GIDDY!!
And if you’re not already signed up for emails,
do so *HERE* so you can get the e-magazine, too!
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Katy Rose (@katyrosecollection)
Click right here to join our email family!
& get the gift of very first issue of Sacred Everyday–80 pages of beauty & goodness— delivered right to your inbox on Monday!!
oh when anxiety and fear threaten and reign in our hearts... over the holidays when anxiety can soar…
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. what an article!
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Good News Movement (@goodnews_movement)
Have you seen this? Born in a refugee camp, now wildly inspiring others going to the WORLD CUP and donating his earnings –
there really is so much goodness to be found
oh yes, don’t we all need this:
People who are irresponsible with our hearts should not be granted great access to our hearts.
Boundaries aren’t just a good thing, they’re a GOD thing!
Need a dish to whip up for Thanksgiving? How about a bright, festive, delicious butternut and blackberry seasonal salad?
SO good!
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Kels ⋒ | bright, joyful, abstract art |
Orange (@kelsierose.creative)
babies + art = heart melting joy!
This year, let His wonder awaken you again, captivate you, capture your heart! More Of Jesus Only — and have a STRESS-FREE, WONDER-FULL Christmas.Read the whole Christmas Love Story, from Creation to the Creche, with all 3 of our Advent Books:
The Greatest Gift
(adult edition)
Best Devotional of the Year, ECPA, 2014, NYTimes Best Seller
(family edition)
Best Inspirational Book of the Year, CBA, 2016, NYTimes Best Seller
The Wonder of the Greatest Gift:
Best Devotional & Gift Book of the Year, CBA, 2019
(pop-up edition with your own 14 inch tree, 25 days of readings, 25 day advent flap calendar, hiding all 25 Biblically inspired ornaments! For any age)
So you don’t miss out on Jesus this year & the The Greatest Christmas.
Do our hearts ever need this? The whole world’s at odds and THIS.
This one simple thing we can do to bring peace and actually connect with a spouse or a friend, or even a stranger, when all else feels in upheaval.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by FamilyMade (@familymademedia)
oh goodness! nothing to say but HEART MELT!
FREE RESOURCE – for understanding and helping our teens with emotions – and these are some GREAT tools
On The Book Stack at the Farm
Read Michelle T. Sanchez‘s recent guest postHow to be a Color-Courageous Follower of Jesus
Read Eugene Peterson‘s recent guest postRemembering & Receiving the Gifts of Christmas
this might just be the breath of fresh air you need this weekend?
come along and take a seat, inhale deep, the works of God are everywhere
For every person who is walking a hard way and looking for a way through, WayMaker is your sign. Your sign that there is hope, that there are miracles, and that everything you are trying to find a way to, is actually coming to meet you in ways far more fulfilling than you ever imagined.
Grab your copy of WayMaker — and begin the journey you’re desperately looking for…
PICK UP YOUR COPY OF WAYMAKER
“In blessing, in sorrow, in the ordinary
Whatever the cost is, You’re always worthy
My heart’s cry and my whole life is for Your glory
You have my attention
So let my life be worship
Let my heart stay true”
Lord, nobody knows how hard we’re trying to be brave
to show up when it’d be easier to give up,
to go do hard & holy things when it’d be easier to go do happy things,
to not quit when we don’t know how to keep going on.
And You lean close & breathe warm courage into our exhausted places:
“Just Call to Me. I guarantee I will answer you. I will make you strong & brave.” (Ps.138:3)
Be Brave.
Hold on to your Light to hold back the flood of dark.
Be Brave.
Your bravery wins a thousand battles you can’t see
because your bravery strengthens a thousand others to win their battles too.
Be Brave.
And do not pray for the hard to go away.
But pray for a bravery *bigger than the hard to come.*
Be Brave.
There are angels closer than you know.
And all the Brave & Courageous & the Never-Give-Uppers
who cling to the Bravest One who loved us to death & saved us back to the realest & forever life,
we all believed angels were close & said Amen.
That’s all for this weekend, friends.
Go slow. Be God-struck. Grant grace. Live Truth.
Give Thanks. Love well. Re – joy, re- joy, ‘re- joys’ again
Share Whatever Is Good.
November 18, 2022
Remembering & Receiving the Gifts of Christmas
My dear friend whom I deeply loved and worked with on The Message Bible , Eugene Peterson was a lifelong pastor, a scholar of biblical languages, who was passionate about helping disaffected outsiders and bored insiders fall in love with Jesus. Here in The Message of Christmas, Eugene shares about the gifts of Christmas and how they continue to give us life every day. It’s an absolute joy and grace to welcome the words of Eugene to the farm’s table today…
The story of Jesus’ birth has an immense progeny. Our planet fairly teems with stories and songs, paintings and drama that got their start from this story. The reproductive energies show no sign of tapering off.
Writers and singers and artists, to say nothing of countless children and parents and grandparents all over the world, continue to find fresh and novel ways of keeping this story going.
But even more impressive are the lives that continue to get a fresh start—a new birth—in the story of this birth.
“ The birth of Jesus is a birth with a message…In Jesus, God is here to give us life, real life .”
Day after day, men and women who feel more dead than alive, in the hearing or singing or seeing of this story, rediscover the utter and unspeakable and beautiful preciousness of life.
The story of Jesus’ birth gets reproduced in human lives still, over and over and over again. The birth of Jesus is a birth with a message. It takes the entire Bible to bring the complete message, but this birth is the core of it: In Jesus, God is here to give us life, real life.
“Through Jesus, we experience God’s unconditional love and kindness and, in turn, experience the power to gift that love to others.”
Open the Gifts of Christmas
When we open and receive the great gift of God’s Son—first given to us at Christmas—we find other gifts nestled with Him in the package. Through Jesus, we experience God’s unconditional love and kindness and, in turn, experience the power to gift that love to others.
As God fills our lives with his loving presence, we also find his joy, peace, and hope welling up inside, no matter what our circumstances. We discover that our life, once empty and aimless, is filled with God’s purpose and calling.
We experience real forgiveness—no matter what we’ve done in our past. And we begin to find the strength and freedom to forgive others, experiencing God’s healing for even our most broken relationships.
LOVE
At Christmas, God demonstrated his love for us by sending his Son to be born as a human baby—to live among us and ultimately die for us. As we receive God’s love and are transformed by it, we are called in turn to love God by loving others as his representatives in this broken world.
Dive deeper with 1 John 4:7-12 and 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
“Life in this world is often difficult but living with God’s constant presence and an eternal hope allows us to experience joy no matter what we may face.”
JOY
The angels announced to the shepherds that the coming of Jesus was a great and joyful event that was significant for everyone. God had come to live among us! Life in this world is often difficult but living with God’s constant presence and an eternal hope allows us to experience joy no matter what we may face. God’s presence in our lives is always a reason for joy.
Dive deeper with Habakkuk 3:17-19 and Philippians 4:4-7
PEACE
The prophet Isaiah spoke of the Messiah as the Prince of Wholeness—the Prince of Peace, and so we often reflect on peace and wholeness as a gift of Christmas. In a world filled with conflict, anxiety, loneliness, and suffering, so many of us long for peace—to be complete and whole.
Jesus offers us personal wholeness and peace with God and his people through his first coming, and we now long for the ultimate eternal wholeness he will bring when he returns.
Dive deeper with Matthew 11:27-30 and John 14:25-27
“The coming of Jesus into this world offers us a clear and real hope that everything wrong in the world will be made right again in the end.”
HOPE
In a world filled with conflict and suffering, people often lose all hope. The coming of Jesus into this world offers us a clear and real hope that everything wrong in the world will be made right again in the end. And by following Jesus, we can offer hope to others not only for life today but also for the eternal life to come.
Dive deeper with Hebrews 12:1-13 and 1 Peter 4:12-19
PURPOSE
By sending his Son at Christmas to reconcile us to himself, God demonstrated his desire to reach out to us and to call us into friendship with himself through Jesus. Our purpose in life is first to joyfully embrace this friendship with God, and then to join God in his redeeming work in the world, whatever form that might take.
Dive deeper with Ephesians 2:7-10 and Romans 8:15-25
FORGIVENESS
By sending Jesus at Christmas, God was putting into action his plan for our forgiveness and redemption. Through his death on the cross, Jesus would pay for our guilt before God and pave the way to our reconciliation with him. And as those who have been forgiven, we are called upon to give forgiveness to all those who have wronged us.
Read 1 John 1:8-10 and Colossians 3:12-14
More than two thousand years ago, the people of God were looking and longing for a savior, but they didn’t expect Jesus. His miraculous birth unfolded in a stunning paradox; while humanity routinely overlooked Him, the entire cosmos celebrated his arrival.
Today, now, we get to join in that celebration, as we hold fast to the gifts of Christmas and share them with others.
Eugene H. Peterson (1932–2018) was a pastor for thirty years, as well as an author of more than thirty books. He is best known for The Message, his translation of the Bible into contemporary, poetic language. His ministry as a pastor and his writings on theology and spirituality have shaped generations of Christians.
Go deeper with your copy of The Message of Christmas. This pocket-sized booklet is perfect for holiday outreach. It is a great way to personally share the hope of Christmas with neighbors, church visitors, or anyone curious about the meaning of Christmas. You can also get a 20 pack of The Message of Christmas for your church or ministry.
[Our humble thanks to NavPress for their partnership in today’s devotion]
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