Are you ready? Sing along with me.
It's the most wonderful time of the year
With the kids jingle belling
And everyone telling you be of good cheer
It's the most wonderful time of the year
It's the hap-happiest season of all
With those holiday greetings and gay happy meetings
When friends come to call
It's the hap-happiest season of all.
Can you tell if your family and friends are ready for the hap-happiest season of all?
Before our family even considers thinking about Christmas and all of the celebration and emotion that goes into it, we observe what has become one of our family’s most important holidays, Pennsylvania whitetail deer season. During this two week period between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we stop almost everything. Think of it like the family vacation that you protect every year and all of your family understands its significance. That’s deer season for us.
We purposefully do things that we don’t pause to do at other times of the year. One of those things for my husband, Bryce, is tending to the worn and beaten leather around our house. He faithfully goes out to the front porch on a cold day in his Woolrich coat, sits on one of our white rocking chairs, and lovingly oils leather boots, rifle slings, and knife sheaths as he fights off the cats that try to help him.
Have you ever seen neglected leather? It’s brittle, dry and stiff. I’m terrible at tending to leather. My quarter century year old deer season boots are proof of my inability to do it. But here’s the thing. Well-cared for, oiled leather lasts a long time and ages with beauty. God created a process where oil restores, protects, and revitalizes. I can see the difference it makes on my old, neglected boots. It changes old wood furniture, beaten leather, and even our bodies.
The celebratory hymn of Psalm 104 calls out the greatness of God. It’s a picture worth seeing. In just a small portion of it, we see how God allows the earth to sustain us.
He makes grass grow for the cattle,
and plants for people to cultivate—
bringing forth food from the earth:
wine that gladdens human hearts,
oil to make their faces shine,
and bread that sustains their hearts. - Psalm 104: 14-15
Think about how important oil would be living in a dry desert, the very place the author of this Psalm would have known well. Oil was used to soften the skin, help with aging, and protect from sunburn and insects. Try this verse out. Put a little oil on your dry hands or face. What happens? It might be a little slippery but it shines. Your skin becomes softer and protected.
Are you like my boots before the oil? A little beat up and run-down. How does your family look? Are they worn out and ragged? Do they need a little love and protection so they can shine?
It’s two weeks until Christmas and our families probably need a little oil. Join me and be the oil that softens, protects, and makes our family members shine. It will indeed make it the hap-happiest season of all.
Searching for wisdom and asking for grace,
Jody Flurie
Jody Flurie is the Founder and Owner of Red Dirt Legacy Co. where family legacy stories are celebrated through each Little Legacy Film Series - a series of short videos that can be easily shared to keep children and grandparents connected by what matters most for each family.
Jody believes all kids, young and old, need to understand where they came from and why it matters. Everyday, she works hard to instill this in her family because it’s only through understanding who we are that we can be fully ourselves and make a true indelible mark on the world.
If you want the same thing that Jody wants for her family, visit reddirtlegacyco.com to find out how your family can celebrate the wisdom, love, and legacy of an earlier generation. If we don’t step up to bring hope to our families, who will?