I’m sitting in my quiet reading corner in my bedroom, overlooking western hills dusted with freshly fallen snow. Welcome, snow. It will be a while before you reach our place, but to see you in the distance brings a smile, like the arrival of a faraway friend. We are gathering in and winterizing. The in-ground sprinklers have been blown out, the irrigation canals that bring life-giving water to our valley lie empty. The dahlia tuber I’m experimenting with has been dug up, washed and safely stored in peat moss for the winter. I do hope I did that correctly. I had a brief 6 weeks of working at a dahlia farm right before the COVID era lockdowns began in 2020 and mostly worked with post-February dahlia tubers. This is the first time I’ve dug up my own tuber to care for it over winter. The blueberry, strawberry, and raspberry starts are all so young and vulnerable, but they, too, are tucked in with peat moss for a long winter’s nap. I hope to have flourishing crops for my future grandchildren one day, so they can come over to pick the berries and read picture books and make raspberry jam and blueberry pies! Yes, I’m already dreaming of becoming a grandma one day. I must prepare early and begin praying for those precious ones now.
It’s the season of “gathering in”, and I see it now so clearly living in the country. Those who work the land to feed the nation with apples and other summer fruits, who raise the grapes and hops that will ferment and brew into festive wines and ale to adorn the feasting of holiday tables- they depend on the weather, the urgency to bring in the harvest before the cold winter months when all goes silent in the orchards and fields.
In our own home, it’s time to prepare the fireplaces, to button up the chicken coop, and to make sure the older hens are letting the younger hens into the coop on these cold nights. Twice I’ve had to go into their run to catch the younger ones and put them inside the henhouse at night. I’m not sure about this new arrangement! We have massive tree stumps that need to get chopped into firewood, the apple tree needs to have its annual pruning, and I’m delightedly making preparations for my piano studio’s Christmas recital. There is the welcoming of friends in your home, stocking the freezer with pie ingredients, soups, and the coffee corner with an assortment of teas and hot drinks. We gather the blankets, the old ones knitted by great-grandmothers now gone on to Glory, others acquired on missions trips, and the growing Pendleton collection. The slippers are brought out, and the blinds are drawn early as we gather at dusk.
Gathering in is a season when we prepare for the colder months outdoors & inside the home. But there’s also a sense of “gathering in” for our hearts, making preparations for spiritual nourishment, Biblical encouragement from God’s Word, the praying of ancient prayers to bring light in the darkness. We follow the liturgical calendar at home and at church, and we are so cognizant of the symbolism of the physical seasons and the way the ancients used those to put the gospel on display by living out the church year in a repetitive and meaningful way. These habits form us, and we want to be formed for goodness, truth, and beauty.
I want to share just a few resources that are encouraging me this Fall and are a sort of “gathering in” spiritually as I stock my home, my children’s imagination, and continue to seek to be faithful in the formation of their souls.
Kingdom & Culture podcast: My husband, Craig, and our friend and co-worker, David, have just started a podcast discussing the Kingdom of God and how we are to live in this time and place and develop the culture around us as Christians. I invite you to listen in as they have deep conversations with Os Guinness, Uri Brito, Nate Walker, Aaron M. Renn, and others who have a heart to see God’s Kingdom come into all the corners of our civilization and world.
The Daily Grace Co.: I have been continually impressed with the resources from The Daily Grace Co. both for my family and our church. This group of people are passionate about the study of God’s Word and provide tools and inspiration to help others dive into this as well. It is that “gathering in” season of looking forward to which Advent devotionals and readings we will be doing as a family, and their newest study, Just As He Promised, is beautiful. Not only do they include a study through this “lenten-like” season of waiting and preparation for Christmas, they also include their signature charts on the attributes of God, the timeline of redemptive history, historical context into the intertestamental period (the 400 “silent” years) that paved the way and set the stage for the incarnation of the Son of God. They also include a glossary of theological terms in the back, and space for notes, reflection, and prayers. I can’t wait to get into this study with my tweens and teens. (They also have beautiful discipleship resources for teenagers!)
The Daily Joy & Daily Strength Podcasts: This Fall, I have been fed and nourished by listening to the Daily Joy podcast for women. The long passages of Scripture narrated by Irish music artist, Kristyn Getty, sets my heart ablaze to hear from God in His life-giving and life-sustaining Word. The brief devotionals by various authors and read aloud by Lydia Brownbeck, add a short encouraging commentary to help us unpack the Scripture passages in our time. There is also one for men called Daily Strength. The podcasts are basically audio versions of the physical books produced by Crossway.
As you gather in this winter, may you attend to the gathering in of your home, but also of your heart and the hearts of others in your care.