THE HOUSE DOCTOR ESTABLISHING A HOME FOR ALL SEASONS

(Writing and photography by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

With a blog name like "In Season" how could I not have a seasonal house?  If anything stands out about all of my articles of remodeling and making a house a home; I would say being "seasonal" has become my own trade mark.  I love a seasonal house!

If you are interested in the concept of a "seasonal house," just note my comments below and begin to make your own plan.  I promise you; you will enjoy it and it will become a fun adventure for you and your family!

When we began remodeling and decorating our home we wanted it to be flexible enough to change with every season.  That is important in a "seasonal house" and you have to keep it in mind as you go along.  We love the liturgical calendar and the way that different seasons teach us in different ways to live our lives to the fullest.  We wanted rooms that would reflect whatever season we were currently living out.  The concept may sound complicated at first; but it is actually very easy and flexible.  

What about you?  What things do you love about each season?  You might want to make a list and consider these things carefully if you are planning to make a "seasonal house" work into your decorating schemes.  Think of the different things you do and how you entertain and live in your home through each season of the year.  Give these things first consideration and decorate in a way that makes it all flow together with your lifestyle.   

We knew it would be work and take time to make these little changes happen at our house every season; but we thought it would keep us from getting tired or bored with what we had spent so much time and energy remodeling and creating.  We wanted  to use things that were classic,timeless and neutral; things that could be decorated around with any color scheme we chose, things that went with each and every changing season.  Once the major purchases were carefully made, we didn't want to have to spend a lot to keep everything current over and over again.  We needed a house for all seasons, a house that was about living and not about things; but the things that we DO have in our house needed to reflect the way we were living in the season that we were in at the time.  It is more about a living atmosphere than  about decorating.  You know how you can walk into a restaurant and know you want to come there over and over again because it provokes certain feelings in you?  Maybe it isn't the decor or the food; it could be the people that frequent the restaurant, or maybe it isn't the people, but the feeling of quiet peace and harmony that you pick up on.  Whatever emotions that are good, those that feed our souls and make our lives rich, that is how we want the seasons at our home to be lived out by everyone who crosses the threshold of our front door. 

This took careful consideration in choosing the main colors and furniture pieces.  We made most of the walls white and let our accent colors bring out color schemes.  This meant that color and decor could completely change at will.  Like life itself, no season at our house will ever be the same.  Some summers are beachy, some are full of fireworks, some springs are vivid greens and some are creamy yellows mixed with gray.  Some winters are festive and celebratory and some are cozy and intimate.  Each new season brings its own flavor according to where we are in life.  The house is flexible; it lives around all of this and joins in the dance of life with us.

To help achieve an easy blend each season we used very basic black and white and mixed neutrals and creams in the fabrics.  Sometimes the draperies change.  Sometimes the pillows change, but the main fabric covered furniture remains a creamy white.    We bought white sofas and black chairs.  Our kitchen table is topped with black smoked glass.  Our other furniture is mixed wood tones, mostly dark colored woods. but some accent pieces are painted white or a color.  We have used a lot of mirrors in order to create the illusion of space, especially in the kitchen area.   There are vivid brightly colored accent pieces of furniture that I store and only bring out in their season.  I have a set of red wing-backed chairs and a set of forest green chairs that I mix and match when appropriate.  I have different colored side chairs that I set here and there and often I change the fabric in their seats to different seasonal colors.   About half the year those chairs are stored.  Most of the other smaller wooden accent pieces are painted a color of the season.  They are pretty much pieces I've found in junk stores and painted myself.  They add so much personality when in use!

If you decide to do this, you will need a storage shed.  If you have a small space, perhaps an apartment instead of a house, I suggest you splurge and rent a storage bin.  Having this extra space to store things is VERY helpful in pulling this off.  Just remember it isn't about accumulating things.  Smaller spaces just call for simpler designs; the theory works the same.  Size does not matter in a seasonal home.  Don't make this your excuse to overspend or go wild buying crazy impulsive things that bring no value or usefulness to the sacred spaces of your home.  This  need for storage was accomplished at our house by the dutch roofed storage space that is on top of our detached garage.   Renting a storage bin somewhere would work just as well for an apartment or a small cozy home.   I try to keep each season's decor organized in its place in that storage area, so all I have to do is swap out a few things each season, carefully store the old and be creative in displaying the new.  The honest word to use here is "TRY."  It is always my goal to keep this storage space from getting all cluttered up with other things that we should just be getting rid of instead of storing, but that is a constant struggle.  I try to clean out the building with a good old fashioned yard sale at least once a year.  That becomes my "mad money" for summer vacations!   Otherwise, I do go through it all at least once a year and give a lot of unused things away.  The less needless clutter here; the better.

In the beginning I picked strategic places in the house for putting the seasonal accents, the sofa pillows, the paintings and objects just inside the foyer entrance, the dining room tabletop, the top of a buffet (that I move from place to place according to the season we are in) and the areas around the fireplace including the mantle and the hearth.  I usually have something seasonal on my kitchen table as well as the buffet table inside my kitchen window.  Look around your rooms and think about the clean empty flat surfaces.  Don't think clutter, but imagine simple elegant seasonal pieces.

I change the dishes in one section of my kitchen cabinets with each season.  I have a wooden storage closet just for dishes and a closet in my house that is strictly for storing crystal and silver.   The throw pillows on the beds and in the bedroom chairs usually change with the seasons too.  I've used two large wardrobes in my guest rooms for storing bed linens, quilts and extra pillows.

The main larger pieces of art in the central rooms of the house are all classic, lovely pieces of  art that would fit with any type of decor.   They use basic color schemes.   I never move most of these pieces.  I just move the smaller things around them.    The one exception to that rule is the foyer art.  I change that painting just inside my door with each season too.  That piece of art usually sets the mood and the color scheme for the season that I am working on.  For Christmas I have a painting of Aslan the Lion with gold flecks in his mane.  Sometimes thought I chose to use an angel painting.  For Valentines season I have a Winnie the Pooh carrying balloon shaped like hearts (sounds very juvenile, but it actually works because of the very adult art in the rest of the room.)  That sets the grey, red and white color theme.  For St. Patrick's Day and leading into the greens of Spring I have a modern painting of flowers with various shades of greens and whites.  It completely changes the mood into soft green spring themes.  In the summer I have a cheerful sunflower that lends itself to blues and yellows and blends in with the beach themes that I like to use.  I also alternate this with a sailboat painting of bright vivid greens, yellows and aquas.   These two paintings also work with patriotic themes for Memorial Day and The Fourth of July.   After that I often go to beach themes.   For the Fall season I have a painting of golden, orange, brown and rust flowers.  Just changing this one foyer painting every season completely sets the mood for the rest of the decor.

There is one focal point in our living room that is a huge blank wall.  Blank walls can be such a decorating problem, but the right solutions are easier than you might think.  At some point I want to do another article about this in The House Doctor and cover some very imaginative ideas for decorating large blank walls.  This spot at our house required a large piece of artwork.  Right now, I have a modern art arrangement made up of 4 large matching pieces.  These modern design have  a blend of colors that go well with any season.  For the future, I have plans to put a sliding rack on this wall that will allow me to change out different large boards of art for each season of the year.    The painted boards will be the backdrop for that season's large art piece or pieces that will cover most of the wall.  The colored boards in the background will fill a lot of the empty space I would have had if I had just used the art by itself.  They will add splashes of  seasonal color  to the walls.     All I will have to do is take the board down for the last season and put up the board for the new season and the change of the background boards gives the room a whole different color scheme each time.  The rack should make changing this out so easy and simple.  This is a project I've planned for a long time, and it will require my  husband's help.   It will have to happen whenever he has time to help me put it all together.  Something to look forward too! He has a vision of floating glass shelves on each side of my changing focal art on this wall.  He has been sketching this out, but the building has not begun yet.  It should be interesting to see what actually comes together!    I love the concept  and I think it will work well.  I will have a special space cleared in my storage area for the different boards to be stored when not in use.  The floating glass shelves will require large pieces of decorative art, different for each season.  This will help us to achieve the more modern look we want, leaving the traditional/contemporary furnishings we have used in the past.  The change has been a slow, gradual transition.

For now, just changing out various little pieces of the decor each season is working great.  Every time we make these easy little seasonal changes, I feel we have moved into a fresh new house.  Because of this; I never get tired of our decor.  It certainly keeps us from getting bored with our house.

Occasionally all of this festiveness bleeds over into the bedrooms, the bathrooms and the downstairs den and study, even the laundry room, just depending on how much rearranging we want to do when.  Christmas, Fall and Spring seem to always wonder all over the whole house.  If we like a certain season and don't want to leave it - we simply leave that color scheme up until we are ready to move on.  There is no law that says we HAVE to make changes.  We make them as we have the time and whenever we are ready.  I've found it is easier to transition one small piece at a time as the season approaches.  It is a scheme that can be very flexible, depending on  the time and energy available.  It can also be spaced out, a little here and little there as one day leads us into another.  If everything starts feeling to much or too cluttered I can always do what I call "minimalist decorating."  I strip everything down to the bare bones furniture, polish the wood and the floors and just enjoy a little simplicity until I get back into a festive mood again.

This technique has made our house much more interesting and we are never bored with our decor.   In the end it cost very little because we simply use things we've accumulated over the years, only adding a piece here and there and remembering to give away or eliminate the pieces that no longer work for us.  People are always amazed at the changes that have taken place around our home since their last visit. 

If we took the time and trouble to lay out every little family heirloom and every special piece of decor that we love all the time, it would just be one cluttered mess, but this way, we do get to enjoy our special treasured pieces for a season and then put them away and pull them back out when that season rolls around again.  You begin to develop a certain anticipation for what comes with the changing calendar.  Here are some examples of the way things have changed from season to season:

LATE WINTER

New Year's Eve and New Year's Day is so much fun to decorate around, I just use most of the same things I used for Channakah, mostly silver and white, removing the blues.  The silver and white carry over and blend well with the reds of Valentines Day later.  Dazzling is the word that comes to mind.  I don't have many pictures of this New Year's schemes I've used.  I will have to take some next year!  We really don't make a huge deal about the American New Year at our home, as we pretty much follow the Hebraic calendar and celebrate the Hebraic New Year that happens during the Spring Holy Days.  Still, I decorate a little and we often have friends over to celebrate the changing of the American civil calendar with a special meal and a toast of thanks for the year that just passed by.

Then there is Epiphany in early January, a beautiful seasonal tradition.  I simply leave the Christmas decorations of the manger and the wise men up longer, letting the wise men draw closer to the manger every day.  I usually put the manger scene up in my kitchen and let the wise men move from our living room to there as the season progresses.  I actually bring out the manger scene and put it in our Sukkah for The Feast of Tabernacles, then move it in the house during the Christmas season.  There was actually a lot of time between the birth of Christ and the wise men appearing with their gifts.  Some think two years.  Leaving this out longer puts more emphasis on the real time frame in history.  Our kids used to love this when they were younger.  Now I'll be showing the same things to the grand kids.  I don't worry about hurrying to clean up Christmas.  I always wait until after Epiphany has passed.  It is easy to keep some of the reds from Christmas and use them for Valentine's Day in February.  That helps us to transition without being so drastic from season to season, a little here, a little there, until you have the whole look when the next season arrives.

Also with February comes Valentine's Day.  I pull out the silver, reds and whites.  I usually completely rearrange the furniture in my living room, moving out my two modern chairs and pulling in my more classic red wing-backed chairs.  I love how the reds blend with the silvers and whites to show off our house and our hearts toward one another.  I leave the silver from New Year's and incorporate it into the Valentine's themes.

SPRING

St. Patrick's Day is all green and silver and white.  This works well with my annual Purim Party that usually happens just before St. Patricks Day.   With Purim our house starts to turn more green and we lose all the red.  I keep some of the silver and white, it looks totally different with green!   Some of these greens transition on into my spring decor later.  I love colors that lend themselves to one season and the next.  

PASSOVER

Another early Spring tradition at our house is Passover.  We celebrate Unlevened Bread and Early First Fruits as The Resurrection.  It is a beautiful sacred time.  I have two sets of dishes that I use only at Passover.  One set is blue and one set is pink, white and brown.  I alternate using them and decorating for the season around them.

When the world's tradition of Easter arrives, we are usually already in Resurrection mode and so we continue to celebrate the Resurrection with all our friends who keep Easter.  To us it is simply a "Resurrection Celebration" because we follow the Hebraic calendar that Jesus used, which usually has the date of the Resurrection already done by the time the rest of the world gets around to celebrating.  We feel it is okay to celebrate the Resurrection ALL THE TIME, so we just join in on this day with our family and friends who don't quite understand the religious calendar the same way we do.  God is full of love and grace and so are we and our friends and family.  

And....it give us even more reasons to be festive.  With Easter comes the traditional things of spring that we don't bring out at our house until after Passover.  We don't worship these things or put too much emphasis on them, we simply see them as seasonal signs of spring to be appreciated for what they are and we thank the Creator who created them for their loveliness in our lives.  We recognize that our friends celebrating Easter are worshiping the same God that we are and that they appreciate the basic biblical theology of salvation from Jesus Christ the same as we do.  We too enjoy the cute little childish and seasonal things that go along with the more serious things of life. 

SPRING

THE GREEN TIMES OF SPRING

After Easter we tend to enjoy the greens of spring in and around our home, and the essence of new life that abounds all around us.  We leave all of this up in our rooms right through Mother's Day and most of May.  I think it may be one of my favorite decorating schemes.

Lately I've grown fond of using yellows and gray in the spring time too:

EARLY SUMMER BRINGS MEMORIAL DAY/FATHER'S DAY/PENTECOST/INDEPENDENCE DAY

We get all red, white and blue when Memorial Day approaches.  The memories of all those who gave their lives for our country and our freedom brings out the patriot in me.  Out come the flags and the nation's colors.  These things go well with Father's Day celebrations, because almost every Dad I know is patriotic.  Strangely enough, these colors work great for celebrating Pentecost too.  I usually add a lot of green plants into the Pentecost season, more ferns and such.  Then comes the 4th of July and we find ourselves already decorated with the traditional colors!  I love how these seasons can be blended when you decorate.  Gives me a breather in the rearranging time.  

LATE SUMMER
GETTING BEACHY IN JULY AND AUGUST

We are people who love the mountains, but in July and August we get beach fever.  If I can't make it to the coast every summer, at least the main living areas of my home will take me there in my mind.  I feel everyone should think of a weekend at home as a mini vacation and a relaxing place to retreat from the hustle and bustle of a busy life.  Your home should always be your sanctuary.   I love bringing out these fun and whimsical items and making the house a summer paradise.  Note the dishes change, as they do in every season.  So do our foods and the recipes we use.  Our back deck becomes BBQ heaven.  I love using the glass top outdoor table as much as the indoor kitchen and dining room tables for festive summer meals.   I have shelves in my building just for storing seasonal sets of dishes.  I've gradually accumulated these over the years.  Many of them have been gifts from family and friends who know how much I love changing my dishes with the seasons of the year.  The best place to find such seasonal dishes is at yard sales and thrift stores.  People get tired of them after their season is over  and practically give away the best sets!  The way I use them seasonally, I never get tired of seeing them.  

Notice how I've used seasonal picture frames for bringing out my families favorite seasonal memories?  This is an easy and inexpensive way to make a seasonal change in decor.  I look for these frames on sale after their season has passed and frame the season's photos that we just went through.  It is always fun bringing out last year's memories when I pull out that box in the next year.

FALL - SEPTEMBER, OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER BRING THE BEGINNING OF THE FALL HOLY DAYS AND THE BEAUTIFUL TRADITIONAL FALL SEASON OF HARVEST AND THANKSGIVING.

Fall is probably my favorite season, though it is so hard to pick a favorite!  I love what Fall brings to our home.  We celebrate the Hebraic Fall Holy Days; The Feast of Trumpets, The Day of Atonement and The Feast of Tabernacles that usually fall in September and October each year, according to the phases of the moon.  It is a beautiful worshipful time for us as a family full of festive meals and remembering the old old stories that speak of Jesus Christ being our Savior in the form of prophecy.  Below is a table set for The Feast of Trumpets one year.  

All of the feast days of fall speak to us of harvest and teach us the biblical lessons around harvesting our lives.  The traditional American Thanksgiving does the same.  I actually believe that the latter evolved from the former, and we celebrate all in our home.  I love the warm, friendly, coziness of all the Fall colors.  They tend to make the poet in me come alive.  When the fall days of The Feast of Tabernacles arrive, I always try to get the whole family away from work and into a quiet peaceful setting for a family vacation that gives us time for renewal and relaxation together.  It gets harder each year as our family grows, but having a seasonal house that they all look forward to returning to helps keep the nest together even after all the little birds have learned to fly on their own!  My family loves fall and my home reflects this.

EARLY WINTER

The end of November brings Channakah, which leads us into the Christmas Season.  Yes, we do celebrate Christmas at our house, unlike a lot of Hebraic thinking people, but we also celebrate Channakah.  This is simply becuase we know the miracle of Channakah is true and real and it teaches us so much about the Light of Christ.  We have come to realize that Christmas was the time of the Conception of Christ (conceived in December, born in the Fall) and we whole heartedly celebrate the Conception of Christ during the Christmas season.   We don't worship our trees at all, we simply use them as reminders that Christ is the light of the world and we try to avoid commercialism during this season and appreciate true giving from the heart.   We also use the traditonal aspects of Christmas as a time for appreciating our family and friends.  For us it is a time to take a deep breath and get reacquainted with one another at the end of a busy civil year.  Most of us have more time off during this season, so lots of festivities are always available to enjoy in our home.

Something I have used over and over in each season is candles.  Buy candles on sale after their season has passed and use them the next year.  I have a lot of ivory and white candles that serve me in every season.  You can put candles in with any arrangement and make it more special.  They are so flexible and candlelight makes every season more cozy and romantic.  The light of the candles lend a certain sacredness to the religious celebrations and helps to set the mood for almost any gathering.

Well, can you see how much a house can change with each season and say welcome a different way with each of the twelve months of the year?  I hope this little visit to my seasonal home has been inspirational to you and sparked some ideas that you can incorporate into your own decorating schemes.

Another little trick I've found handy is to use seasonal decor when you are on a ten year do-it-yourself transition in remodeling.  Seasonal decorations will destract the eyes away from the things that you just have not had time to do yet.  People tend to only notice the beauty of the season and relax in the care and love you are giving your home regardless of how finished or unfinished your remodeling is.

I would love to hear some of your ideas too!  

May you all find blessings and a heart for your home in whatever season of life you are living through.

SEASONS - THINKING OF EARLY FIRST FRUITS AND TRANSFORMATION

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

We have been talking a lot about The Holy Days of God.  I wish to spend the next few days pondering the Hebraic celebration of Early Firstfruits, the day that many begin counting the 50 days of the omer while waiting on Pentecost.  This is how the ancients knew the day. They did not look at a calendar or ask Google as we do today; they counted the omer. 

 Have you ever considered this practice or pondered the wisdom of these days?  The idea of counting each day represents spiritual preparation and anticipation for the giving of the Torah.  It is how the people traditionally prepared their hearts for God to reveal things to them.  

The most important thing to remember about Passover is that Early First Fruits represented the resurrection of Christ.   Early First Fruits is celebrated on the second day of The Seven Days of Unleavened Bread; 3 days after the Passover Seder.  It is one of the seven days of Unleavened Bread during the Passover season.  The three days (Passover plus the first two days of Unleavened Bread) represent the time of Christ in the grave.  On Early First Fruits He is risen!   The Passover Seder tells in symbols of how Jesus died, was buried and rose on the third day.  Hence, it is very important that a family observe the Passover to understand all the details of the history of the people that God used to bring us Messiah and to understand how everything that God did with them led to the sacrifice of the Messiah in our place.  



There is more to the progression of this victory.  The proof was in the Resurrection of Christ.  This is what Early First Fruits symbolizes; the Resurrection.  The barley loaf that is waived on Early First Fruits is symbolic of Jesus and how He was resurrected a victorioius Savior of the the World.  He was the "first" of a full harvest for The Kingdom of God.  This is what one must understand in order to understand the further progression, the giving of the Holy Spirit of God to His people on Pentecost.


The first miracle of Pentecost was with Moses when God gave the Torah.  The Holy Spirit is the personification of the Torah living in God's people.  God told the people to count from Passover to Pentecost from the offering of the early first fruits sheaf of barley grain.  They counted 50 days and that brought them to the day that the wheat harvest was ready to be offered.  The wheat harvest was the larger crop, the most valuable crop of the year.  If the barley crop was good and the wave sheaf was offered first at early first fruits, the latter first fruits offering of the wheat crop would be abundant!  The symbolism is that Jesus was our early first fruit offering, and we are the latter first fruit offering.  These offerings are brought into the storehouse of God and The Kingdom of God thrives!  

You start counting the 50 days on the day of the early first fruits offering.  That is how you know which day is going to be Pentecost.  

This is an ancient custom and a very old tradition of Israel.   Knowing this, I want to simply contemplate the reasons and the original purpose for the custom of "counting the Omer."

The first thought that comes to mind is that this practice, done properly, (without the intention of using it for self gain or magic) helps us to grow as individuals.   The fifty days are days that we should be meditating on our purpose and our growth before God.  

It has been noted by some that the formula for staying young is to always continue growing.  Losing that capacity to continue growing at any age is tragic.  Yet, when you stop to think about it, any time we're not growing and changing, we're not living; we're just existing.  The proper counting of the omer is actually about moving to a spiritual place that is higher than "just existing." It is looking forward to what God is going to do next with us.  It is NOT the practice of elevating ourselves, but it IS the process of letting God work inside of us to bring us to a better plane of existence in our lives in His Kingdom. 

I love this much often misquoted passage of scripture found in Genesis 24:1:

"Abraham was old; he came with his days" 

"He came with his days" teaches us that Abraham used each of his days to the fullest extent.  At the end of his life, he came to old age "with all his days" in hand.  No day was without its own unique growth.   In other words, Abraham had something to show for all his days of living.  He had produced spiritual fruit from the labor of his soul on this earth.  This is what we hope to achieve in the counting of the omer; to number our days for the goodness of God's Kingdom in our lives.

This all sounds great, but it isn't always easy.  Some people do not want to move any further spiritually than reaching the place of knowing there is a Messiah, believing in Him and receiving and enjoying the gift of salvation.  Salvation is, after all, the greatest gift ever given and by all means the most important gift.   

It surprises many to learn that fact that there are even more gifts!  Why is this such a surprise and so hard to understand?  When you married your husband, did your life end with the marriage on your wedding day, or was that day only the beginning?  There is so much more!  God is such a giver!  Going further with God is a choice we all have to make for ourselves.  Do we want to stay warm and cozy with all we have already attained through the granting of the greatest gift, or do we want to keep moving on into even more adventures with God?  Salvation is an awesome, most important gift, and it is free for the taking, but if you value it, you will more than likely also value another gift called sanctification.  Sanctification can only come after Salvation.

Unlike salvation, sanctification is not free.  Salvation required no effort on our part. Sanctification does.  Jesus gives us both gifts; salvation and sanctification.  It is only Him working inside of us that makes either gift possible.   His blood is ALL that makes us holy before God.  Make no mistake that it is His blood that saves us and only His blood that makes us holy before God.  None of our own works will ever attain our salvation or sanctification.  Our own efforts are like filthy rags, but that doesn't mean that we should not make an effort.  

God desires for us to want to be holy like Him.  Sanctification will cost you your attitude!  You will have to surrender your will and succumb to the will and nature of God.  God wants us to turn from the old man and begin to be the new man.   This process of being made new after salvation is called sanctification.   Once we are covered with the blood of Jesus, this process becomes possible.  It is impossible without the blood of Jesus.  Please hear me out on this; once we have been saved, it is sanctification that makes new life begin in us.  Growing closer to God through sanctification increases the working of God's Holy Spirit that resides inside our soul.  Sanctification is how God transforms us from the old person we were to the new person He actually created us to be.  It is again, like a harvesting.  A seed must die to itself, be buried in the ground and endure until the sun and water and nutrients that make it grow do their work.  We are counting the omer during this time of lying dormant, the time that is unseen, the time that the little seed becomes a small plant and begins to push itself to the surface and come into the world a new plant.       

Some of us are afraid of walking down this path of sanctification and new growth.  We are often afraid of failure, but we must  continuously keep in mind that we are covered by the blood of Jesus.  We must remember the fact that His blood is so righteous that it cannot fail.  So many are afraid of failing in life that they refuse to ever start to live.  How ironic!  This is so sad.  It causes people to settle for dust when they could obtain pure gold.  

Setting too lofty and unattainable goals is often the biggest reason people fail. When we set our goals too high and too soon, we inevitably fall short and get discouraged. Things are easier and less frustrating if you take them one day at a time. This is the method used in “counting the omer.”  This is how God teaches us to be holy; one day at a time, one life experience at a time.  Each lesson builds as we go through the 50 days meditating on God's nature and determining to imitate Him as best we can.




We are told in the scriptures to count the 49 days between Passover and Shavuot (Pentecost) beginning on the day of Early First Fruits and ending on The Day of Pentecost.  
Like most events in life we tend to be more aware of the beginning and the end, but it is the part in the middle that is required to bring about true and lasting transformation. Therefore the counting of the days from Passover to Pentecost is very much an effort in which THE PROCESS is in and of itself of great value. 



Counting the omer is how we learn to "number" our days. The word for "number" in Hebrew is “mispar.” Its root is closely related to our English word for "story" ― “sipur.” Can you see the relationship between the two?

A collection of events (or days) becomes a story ― as opposed to a random anthology of events. Each day builds on the day before as we go along creating God's story for each of us.  You will have a beginning in which the characters are introduced, a middle in which conflict takes place, and an end in which there is resolution. There is a full story eventually, but it happens, unfolds and builds in increments of time.

Unfortunately today our lives flow by so quickly that we frequently lose awareness of the awesome power of our own stories. The metamorphosis of today into tomorrow is subtle enough for us to lose consciousness of time, how it began, what lay in the middle and how it all ends.  The commandment to count each day after we have experienced a "passing over" teaches us mindfulness.  It re-opens our hearts to hearing stories.  The stories of God help us to count out the days of our lives, showing us how to live in each moment.   From Passover to Pentecost there are two stories which are intertwined.  One is the story of a transformation of a people who at Passover become physically free into a people who at Shavuot become spiritually free.

The Passover story tells us of the day the People of God left Egypt.  This was a day in which they rejected the Egyptian definition of what their lives would hold.  They learned through the power of God they were free to be exactly who they truly were created to be.

But they did not yet know their own stories.  

It was only when they received the Torah that they found the channels that could give their souls expression.  Always with the onslaught of total freedom comes a process of learning.  It is unexpected, but it always shows up.  It is through the learning process that the people of God learned the mechanics of meeting those real challenges they faced in the wilderness, challenges that were genuine and enduring.  We each face our own wilderness circumstances and we each have our own challenges in this life.  Through this process of living out time day-to-day the stories of the people of God in the wilderness began to evolve.  Without this process of time and learning they would have simply remained slaves forever.  There would have been no stories to tell.  Salvation brings us life and freedom.  Sanctification gives our life stories.  

 

By living through the time of transition (in the wilderness) The Israelites evolved into a people that would be used by God.  

                          

All evolution eventually involves change.  God gave the people the ritual of the early first fruits sacrifice to follow so they would recognize this.   Even this ritual defining the time of year for them reflected change.   The sacrifice that was offered on Passover was made out of barley.   In ancient times, barley was used as fodder for animals.  The sacrifice that was offered on Pentecost was made of wheat.  Wheat is often used as an allegory for the human capacity of intelligence.  While an animal can eat a fruit or a leaf (the early sacrifice), it requires human intelligence and creativity to make bread (the later sacrifice.)  This pictures the growing process from the sacrifice of early first fruits to the sacrifice of latter first fruits.

Here in this process of time from the Passover and leaving Egypt until arriving in the promised land and eventually experiencing Pentecost, we begin to see the amazing transformation of God's people from a people who are defined by the strife and yearnings of the sort of freedom shared by animals; to the freedom of becoming truly evolved human beings.  The time between Passover and Pentecost and the counting of the omer is all about transformation and progression to a higher form of life.  God desires that we have this gift!  

Only God can bring about our transformation!

Left to ourselves we would remain depraved animals.  God has a way of transforming us if we let him.  Upon leaving Egypt, those who were transformed had to be obedient in putting the blood of the lamb over their door posts.  This was the first step to total freedom yet they hardly noticed what they were doing; they were simply acting in faith and obedience.   Sometimes the transformation from slavery to freedom is gradual and unnoticed as time marches on and on, but it happens when we are obedient enough to trust God and let it happen.    

What makes us truly human? Some think it is the bond that we share with God that makes us human beings.  These bonds are called "sefirot," a name which also has the same root word as "number" and "story." This common root conveys the fact that our beginnings, middles and ends are ultimately measured and finite, but nonetheless our time is touched by the infinite spark of godliness within us.  The earliest mention of this concept is presented in the Kabbalistic work called Sefer Yetzirah, literally; the "Book of Formation."  This book has been attributed to Abraham by the sages of old.                  

 Do you know or understand that some Kabbalistic work evolved from Abraham?  It was a long time before I discovered this fact.  The very word Kabbala sounded very spooky and strange to me.  I avoided it.  Most of the time it is still strange and spooky!  This is one of those times to discern what is scriptural from what has been added to scripture.  Be careful where you go, especially with mystic Kabbalistic teachings.  Because of this, it took me some time to come around to the truth of counting the omer.  

                                                                                                                                   I thought about the fact that God attributed righteousness to Abraham.  Maybe he (Abraham)  knew something that I had not yet thought of and I began to study the parts of the puzzle in Kabbalistic thinking that were attributed to Abraham only.  Hmmmm.....  Be careful though not to be mislead.  Do not to mix the interest in biblical Hebrew roots with the wrong kind of Kabbala that practices magic and sorcery.  Magic and sorcery are an abomination to God!  Abraham did not participate in such things.

Over the years what Abraham knew has been perverted by greedy and ungodly men using and twisting the knowledge for their own selfish reasons.    Abraham would not have been mixed up with or participated in any type of sorcery, magic or idol worship.   He was strongly opposed to the occult and idol worship; which is where all of the wrong types of Kabbala perversions lead.  That is why I probably will not even call what I am referring to here Kabbala; because it is not a part of such things, but biblical in nature and follows the scriptures.   

I am simply referring to the study of the nature of God and how it works in our lives when we recognize and count the days between Passover and Pentecost.   God was the One who commanded that we do this.  There are those who take this practice to an extreme who do not even believe in God.  That is not at all what I am talking about. 

                                                                                                                             

My only reason for considering the practice of counting the omer at all is because of God's commandment to Abraham, Moses and others in the bible.  The scriptures clearly spell out that we should count the days up to 50 days, beginning with Passover on the Day of Early First Fruits in order to know when Pentecost will arrive.

 There are over a thousand commentaries on Sefer Yetzirah.  It remains one of the most fascinating Jewish works on the nature of God.  The thing I love about it is that it helps me to know more of The Father.   In the 1500s, Rabbi Yitzhak Luria, a mystic from Egypt, settled in Safed.   He was known widely by the acrostic of his name as the Ari (literally "the Lion").   He taught the most enigmatic sections of Kabbalah to a select group of disciples.   Subsequently, the mystic teachings of Judaism became far more accessible than they had ever been in the past.   Those who knew the commandment to "count the days" could now begin to understand "why" they were counting the days.  Understanding is the birth of wisdom.  Always remember to chew up the meat and spit out the bones, or in other words weigh the wisdom written down by men against the scriptures as you go along in order to stay pure to God's will.  

The most central theme of this Rabbi's teachings is the significance of gaining an awareness of the bond that we share with God.  He calls this the "sefirot" of our spiritual souls.

It has been determined that there are seven aspects of godliness that can be displayed by human beings:

1) Chesed - which means loving kindness

2) Gevurah - which means justice and discipline

3) Tiferet - which means harmony and compassion

4) Netzach - which means endurance

5) Hod - which means gratitude and humility

6) Yesod - which means foundation and bonding

 7) Malchut - which means kingship, leadership and sovereignty.
 

These attributes of God are taught in the scriptures.  They are the things that one should meditate on in the days of counting the omer. 

I find it wonderful to see and know that the commandment which summed up all commandments - "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind and love your neighbor as yourself" is the first commandment mentioned and taught in the counting of the omer.  All other things build upon this one commandment.  This commandment describes the state called "chesed."  It seems if we don't get this "love" part of life - we miss out on everything else altogether.  It is the first aspect of godliness that is taught as we begin to count the days.  It is our first thought toward developing holiness in our day to day lives. 

Another favorite of mine is  aspect number five which represents gratitude and humnility - as the past ten years of life for me have been full of the recognition that gratitude and humility are two of the truest forms of worship. 

It is also noted in these teachings leading through the counting of the days till Pentecost that at the root of all forms of enslavement (thinking of the Israelites in Egypt as well as our own enslavement to sin), is a distortion of these attributes of God's nature.  If we are not careful with our humanness, we will distort these things of God and defeat the learning.  We must beware and stay pure to the original meanings.

Each of the seven weeks between Passover and Shavuot is dedicated to examining and refining one of these seven aspects of godliness and different combinations of each of them together.

There is something in our nature that can reach higher and learn more and be transformed for each day that we are faithful to counting the omer.  It is not at all about the salvation we have already been freely given; but it is about the sanctification process, a way of letting God sift and shape and transform our natures into what He originally created us to be now that we ARE saved.  It is about achieving our fullest destiny before God

The counting happens in its set time every year between Early First Fruits and The Day of Pentecost.   Each season is compounded upon another until, hopefully, like Abraham; we grow old and we come before God with our own days.   Let us learn to make each one count for God's Kingdom.

As we dwell on these qualities of a godly person during the seven weeks between Passover and Pentecost our own stories and purposes begin to unfold a little further each day.  If we let God work in this time He will enlighten us with more of the stories of our own destiny and purpose He created.   It is through knowing the bond that we share with God, through The indwelling of The Holy Spirit and the blood of The Lamb from Our Savior Jesus Christ, that we are transformed and begin to grow spiritually.

So, dear friends, I pray that God will lead and teach each of us as we go through this season of numbering our days after we reach the time of Early First Fruit in the season of Passover.     

COME AS A CHILD - LESSON 65 - I WILL GO

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

As Abraham waited with Isaac back in the land of Canaan, his faithful servant Eliezer continued his work in a far country, seeking a perfect bride for Isaac.  He had met the beautiful Rebekah at the well and would have dinner with her family that night.  He would reveal his identity and his purpose to everyone there first, then try to woo and win Rebekah in order to bring her back to Abraham’s house where Isaac would be waiting to claim his bride.

The time had come and supper was prepared.  Eliezer went into a room where a feast had been laid out before him.  He was offered the best chair at the table and offered the best wine.  It was all very pleasant and tempting, but Eliezer knew he could not participate in this meal any further until he explained exactly who he was and why he was there.  He must tell his story in order for them to understand his mission.  It is very similar to the Passover meal when we reach the portion of the meal and come to the telling of the story.  There is much to be understood before the meal can continue.  The details must be laid out for everyone to hear.  The story must be told.

The position of Eliezer here reminds us of Jesus in the Passover observance with his disciples at The Last Supper.  In this service we get to the third cup and remember that Jesus said to His disciples that he would not partake of the third cup, the cup of redemption and the cup of a new covenant, until He could do so with them in the coming Kingdom of God.  It was customary in the wooing of a bride for a cup of wine to be set before her by the advocate of the groom.  If she drank the wine, her answer was "yes."  If she did not there would be no marriage.  If her answer was yes on this occasion, she would drink another cup with the groom to toast their marriage on their wedding day.  The groom did not drink until that time.  

There will be a marriage supper in heaven one day.  Until then, the bride of Christ will drink the cup of communion that signifies redemption and her covenant with her groom.  

Eliezer could not allow Rebekah to come to the table and drink the wine unless she knew his true mission!  He told them he was the servant of Abraham.  That little bit of information alone would have been enough to keep the dinner conversation going all night long, but Eliezer had more.  He explained that Abraham had been very, very prosperous in the far away land and he explained that Abraham was very old now and would not be with them much longer.  Knowing this, Abraham had deeded all he owned to his son, Isaac, who had been born to Abraham from his wife Sarah when she was too old to have a child.  Isaac had grown into a fine young man and Abraham had turned everything he had over to Isaac. 

Eliezer went on to tell them that Abraham had expressed his desire for Isaac to have a bride from the land of his own people.  Abraham had asked Eliezer to go and find this bride.  Eliezer explained his prayer to God when he arrived at the well for a young girl to come and offer him water and also offer to water his camels.  When Rebekah came along and did exactly that, Eliezer knew she was the one that God had intended for Isaac.  When Rebekah had explained that she was the granddaughter of Abraham’s brother, Eliezer knew for sure. 

There is deep hidden symbolism in this story that represents The Marriage Supper of The Lamb and The Bride of Christ.  The dinner where Eliezer asks the family for Rebekah to be Isaac's bride is symbolic of The Marriage Supper of the Lamb that will happen in heaven one day.  The meeting of Rebekah at the well is symbolic of how The Holy Spirit of God finds the Bride of Christ by the well of water from which you will never thirst again, the spring of  the water of everlasting life supplied by God's Holy Spirit.    We know Jesus used the same words in greeting the Samaritan woman at the well at a later time in history when he asked her "Please give me a drink of water from your jar. " Jesus was offering her a whole new life, just as Eliezer was offering Rebekah.  That woman was one of the first to be claimed for The Kingdom of God from all of the lost and wondering sheep of Israel, much like Rebekah, a long lost relative, is being claimed as a bride for Isaac in this story.  

It would have been fun to have been in the room to watch the changes of the expressions on all of their faces as Eliezer revealed his story, gave his true identity, and explained the whole truth of his mission.  They all must have been astounded at his words; especially Rebekah.  Do you think it is possible that she had been praying for such a thing to happen?  Like all young girls she might have been seeking the will of God for her life and asking Him to provide a very special husband intended just for her.  We do not know any of these specifics, all we know is that Eliezer revealed his identity and laid out the story just as it transpired and they all were probably very silent for awhile as they pondered these facts with sincere amazement.

With all of the truth out now; Eliezer got right down to business!  His very words were: “Now then, if you will deal loyally and truly with my master, tell me; and if not, tell me; that I may turn to the right hand or to the left.  In modern day terms this might sound like:  “So give me your answer right away so that I can either take her back with me for Isaac, or go on searching for the right bride in another place.”  

Again, we see a shadow and type in Eliezer of The Good Shepherd.  He is going out as far as necessary, hunting, searching, trying to find that long lost lamb.  When he finds the little lamb that belongs to his master, he wants to quickly bring her home in order to return her to the fold where she belongs.

Eliezer had done his job, he had located the bride.  Just as God woos us with The Holy Spirit and gives us the invitation to be a part of the Kingdom; He also gives us free will.  We, like Rebekah, have a choice.  We can accept or reject the offer.  That one piece of the puzzle is always up to the individual with the invitation.  The rest of this story was up to Rebekah and her family, but Eliezer was not a man to waste time and he was ready to move on!

It isn't discussed, but by now you have to realize that night at dinner that Rebekah drank the cup.  She said "yes" through her actions and deeds without even having to say the words out loud.  When dinner was over Eliezer knew the answer from Rebekah's heart.  

After the lengthy explanation of all that had happened, it did not take Laban and Bethuel and Rebekah's Mother long to answer either.  They had the authority to speak for Rebekah.  They said “This thing comes from the LORD, we cannot speak to you bad or good.  Behold, Rebekah is before you, take her and go, and let her be the wife of your master’s son, as the LORD has spoken.”

Can’t you just hear Rebekah’s heart pounding? One minute she is a simple village girl going about her daily tasks, and the next moment she is going to live in a foreign land and be the wife to a man that she had never even met.

At that point Eliezer and his men enjoyed the luscious feast spread before them.  They had a good nights sleep in a comfortable bed and rose the next morning refreshed and ready to go on their way.  Eliezer thanked Rebekah’s family for their hospitality and asked them to send him on his way back to his master.  The family was a bit reluctant to let Rebekah go so soon.  They tried to reason with Eliezer.  “Let the maiden remain with us a while, at least ten days, after that she may go.”  Eliezer did not give in to this but said he needed to be on his way and about his master’s business.  He felt it was the LORD’s will for him to return right away.  So they called Rebekah and asked her if she was willing to go right away.  

Rebekah’s answer was “I will go.”

Any time God calls us to something, there must be a complete surrender of our will to His.  Rebekah gave the perfect answer for this situation in her life.  It was not an easy choice that she was asked to make.  Her life was instantly changing, never to be the same again.  All her life she had been sheltered and cared for by a loving family, now she was being asked to go immediately to an unknown place to live as the wife of an unknown man.  All she knew of this man was what had been told to her by his father's servant.  It was as if Rebekah was being asked to grow up and leave her childhood behind in one day, in one hour, in one moment of time.  She had decided and she would go.

Here it becomes obvious that Rebekah’s heart was in the same place as Abraham’s when God told him to go to an unknown land and trust Him with the details.  She and Abraham were kindred spirits in these decisions.  Both of their reactions were the same.

  

Rebekah had already committed her heart to this purpose.  She was ready to go.  She said goodbye to the only family that she had ever known and took her seat in the caravan of the servant of her future husband's father.  They left with many camels that carried all the gifts specifically designated to be hers (although some other gifts were also given to her family); gifts from a groom she had not yet met.  

Can you imagine the thoughts in her head as they trod through the desert and headed toward her new home?  I'm sure the biggest question that Rebekah pondered over and over on the journey was the same as any young girl about to be married.

She must have wondered all the way; 

What will HE be like?