the real essential oil

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 lovinging 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. You can see the difference it makes on my old, neglected boots. It changes old wood furniture, beaten leather, and even our bodies.

Jody’s Work Boots

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. We strive to help lonely and neglected strangers at Christmastime, it’s part of what we should do. But how does our 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