Missey
Butler
Contributing Writer
Missey Butler is a former CBN staff contributor to CBN.com.
More from Missey Butler
More from Missey Butler
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Autumn's Allure
The change of seasons is always a welcomed relief, especially for those of us who have to endure those sometimes unbearable temperatures, whether cold or hot… day in and day out.
Of the four temperate seasons, none of them excite me quite like the ushering in of autumn. To me it holds a unique appeal.
I'm not sure why it is that always around this time of the year, I suddenly come alive with a transfusion of vigor and vitality.
Perhaps it's the noticeable scurry of nature as she readies herself for the harsh weather. Or maybe it's the graceful descent of the orange, brown and red leaves as they quietly spin and toil to their waiting fate, the ground.
I love to watch my furry little friend’s, those precocious, fun- loving squirrels. They no longer have time to chase each other across the tops of picket fences, but instead are storing lots of acorns and nuts deep in the knotty holes of what will soon be their cozy winter dens.
Even the autumn, evening sky tells of a coming change by its horizontal streaks of amber, pink, and gold, outlining the silhouette of the sun’s departure. What a masterful painting our Creator strokes, as evening makes its sullen approach. The chill of the night air whispers through our windows causing a slight stir of the curtains and sending a reflex of a shiver.
Granted, I’m sure there are many people out there who are just as captivated by the allure of autumn, but there is another kind of “allure” that I’ve recently been reading about, one that I find deeply intriguing. You can read about it in the Old Testament book of Hosea.
Like a romantic novel, it’s the story about God’s promise to “allure” us to Himself by way of a beautiful betrothal.
Therefore, behold, I will allure her [Israel] and bring her into the wilderness, and I will speak tenderly and to her heart. There I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor [troubling] to be for her a door of hope and expectation. And she shall sing there and respond as in the days of her youth and as at the time when she came up out of the land of Egypt. And I will betroth you to Me forever; yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy. I will even betroth you to Me in stability and in faithfulness, and you shall know (recognize, be acquainted with, appreciate, give heed to, and cherish) the Lord. (Hosea 2:14-15, 19-20).
Isn’t that the most beautiful promise? I don’t know about you…but that loving proposal, that divine invitation to be joined in glorious union with the Maker of all heaven and the earth is hard to turn down.
Our God can be very alluring in His advances toward us, His beloved. It never ceases to amaze me how awesomely faithful He is. At the very end of the chapter (in verse 23), He demonstrates once again His covenant-keeping power to us His bride, even when we are not always faithful in our responses to Him.
“I will show my love to the one I called, ‘Not my loved one.’ I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’; and they will say…’You are my God.’”
Amazing, God is faithful to us, even when we are not faithful to Him. What greater love could there be? How wonderfully alluring… how beautifully divine.
~
Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified® Bible, Classic Edition (AMPC), Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.lockman.org .
A Wishbone Wish
CBN.com - As the celebration of Thanksgiving draws nearer and nearer, we see and hear about many wonderful family traditions that take place every November, around this time of the year.
I have my own favorite custom from my early childhood that involved my grandmother, myself, and the infamous turkey wishbone. As a youngster, I would make sure that I strategically parked my dining room chair right next to hers, in delightful anticipation of what was to be uniquely “our own” tradition.
I would eagerly watch as Dad (like a skilled surgeon) would carve the big turkey, carefully removing the u-shaped wishbone, and like a football running back would hand it off to my mom who would then place it in the windowsill to dry. Yep, that to me, was the signal that Thanksgiving had official arrived.
After my oldest brother had given thanks for the food, we would all delve into the scrumptious meal, exchanging large bowls of mashed potatoes, homemade stuffing, string bean casserole, and hot rolls. As the dessert plates were handed out and the pumpkin pie was being served, Grandma would lean over to me, whisper the rules, and then we looked squarely in each others eyes, holding the dried upper breast bone with our pinky fingers.
Our eyes together would close shut, both of us making a wish, and then we would pull! The lucky holder of the largest bone portion won the wish contest. Her eyes would always twinkle with joy whenever I would win. It’s a memory I will forever cherish.
The tradition of breaking the wishbone dates as far back as 2,400 years, to the Etruscans, a European tribe that resided between the Tibor and Arno rivers in ancient Italy. That’s right, an Italian Thanksgiving! Who would have thought?
I can see it now ... spaghetti, meatballs, pasta, rigatoni, ravioli, and who could forget…pizza! Yep, it all certainly whets my appetite a whole lot more than plain ole' turkey any day. Dating back to 322 B.C., according to tradition, the Etruscans considered chickens to be oracles and truth-speakers, basically a "know-it-all" kind of bird. Tribe members sought insight from the poultry (mainly the hens) by placing corn kernels in a circle that represented the 20 letters of their alphabet.
A scribe or high priest recorded the order in which the female chicken chowed the corn, which then would be interpreted in the order of the letters chosen to announce a forbearing, such as the initials of whom a woman might marry. The sequence of the letters generated from the hen's pecking was left to the interpretation and insights of the holy order.
After the event, the chicken was prepared and consumed as a meal. The collarbone was saved and left to dry in the sun. Tribe members were allowed to make a wish when stroking the drying bone; and eventually, the tug-of-war contest began.
History tell us, that the pilgrims carried the tradition onward to the United States, when they discovered that the woods of North America were mainly filled with turkey. They then changed the custom from the chicken clavicle to the turkey wishbone. And we carry on that tradition to this day.
Thanksgiving and traditions go hand-in-hand. Each family has their own traditions that make their holiday celebrations complete.
Prayer traditions before Thanksgiving meals also vary widely from family to family. Some families prefer to rotate members, so every year a different family member says the Thanksgiving prayer. More popular, every member says their personal prayer out loud, taking turns, giving thanks for the countless blessings enjoyed.
Yes, we are blessed to have such wonderful traditions and treasured moments with our family and friends that will forever remain close in our hearts.
“Father, give us this day our daily bread, and we pray that we, who are filled with boundless good from your open hand, may never close our hearts to the hungry, the homeless, or the poor. For you nourish and sustain all living things,
And do good to all, and provide food for all Your creatures whom You have created.”
All Glory and Thanksgiving unto you oh Lord!
"Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His love endures forever." ( )
“They will celebrate Your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of Your righteousness.” ( )
More Devotions on Spiritual Life
More from Spiritual Life
The Autumn Bouquet
CBN.com -- As a young girl growing up in the South, it was customary to experience what we call Indian summers. The warm days that would linger on into the months of September and sometimes October.
During those extended periods of seasonal temperatures, you could usually find me perched high atop one of the many large apple, maple, or oak trees that graced our two-acre family home. Life was fairly simple then -- at least that’s how it seemed for this former tomboy who much preferred a catcher’s mitt over playing with Barbie doll’s any day.
My entire summer wardrobe consisted of blue jeans, T-shirts, and a red celery stalk rubber band that nicely gathered up my blonde locks into a bouncy ponytail. Yep, back then it was just me and my love affair with trees. To this day my brothers still talk about how I used to “live” in the trees and how I had the scarred-up elbows and knees to prove it.
Looking back, I realize how those grand old trees must have been somewhat of a sanctuary for me. Besides offering a great view and a cool shade, I honestly believe I was just trying to get a closer look at the ‘God of the sky’, the God I had been hearing so much about from my Sunday school lessons.
I could always sense His presence whenever I held a large, golden maple leaf and gazed at it in curious wonder while lying in the crook of a large limb. I was fascinated by the tiny veins of sap that crisscrossed on its surface and the teeny-tiny critters that gathered inside the foliage. I would patiently watch as an inch worm continually re-gathered himself as he humpity-humped his way e-v-e-r so slowly toward an over-ripened apple that was barely hanging on by its stem.
My absolute favorite time of the year is fall. I just love the warm colors of the yellows, oranges, reds, and crimsons that autumn brings her way. The very air itself seems to hold a clean crispness as the squirrels scamper around, greedily stuffing acorns in their jaws, while dried leaves one by one slowly fall, toiling and spinning in the dance of a graceful decent.
After a few weeks of the cool fall breezes, I would soon notice that my tree hideaways were becoming a little more sparse and empty. All the colored foliage was now scattered about on the ground underneath. I would jump down from the trees and shuffle my bare feet through the leaves as I carefully selected only the prettiest and brightest leaves while holding them together by their stems. Before long, I would have a rather large bouquet of autumn leaves to offer back to the God of the sky, who had made the wonderful trees that I had spent my entire summer in and all the tiny creatures that had befriended me there as well. This was the beginning of a long love affair between a tomboy girl and her Creator that would last for a lifetime.
I still gather up the prettiest and brightest fall-colored leaves in remembrance of my wonder years, those impressionable years when I was discovering the God whose marvelous handiwork is displayed not only in the sky, but throughout the heavens and the earth and even sometimes most gloriously… in a little girl’s backyard.
Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. Then all the trees of the woods will sing for joy; they will sing before the LORD ( , NIV).
