Tea & A Good Book Brewing- Installment 43, Introducing December's Book of the Month

Am I the only one wondering exactly how we arrived at December with such unprecedented speed?

It really does not seem like a whole year ago that we celebrated Advent, had an anniversary, watched Elasa blow out her birthday candles...and here we are: doing it over again after what feels like a span of about seven months!

If time really does speed up the older you get, there may well come a time when the decorations will just stay up year round because the year will only be about a month long, anyway!

I had some trouble (again!) coming up with a book of the month for December! I had vague ideas of what I wanted, but nothing turned up in all my searching that quite matched what was in my head. I guess it rarely does, so I should not have been surprised.

What I did find in my searching was a disturbing number of cowboy and Amish romance novels with Christmas themes. All I want for Christmas Is a Cowboy was one such title, so you can see why I was having some trouble!

The book I did decide on is a bit of a pig-in-a-poke, since I do not have my hands on a copy of the book yet, so I was unable to peruse it as I normally like to, but the author's name and reputation are such that I think we'll at least be safe from cowboys and other unsavory topics showing up in the picture.

And the book is?

The Greatest Gift: Unwrapping The Full Love Story of Christmas, by Ann Voskamp

I got a sample of the book on my kindle and found the little that I could see to be quite interesting! It is set up like a devotional, with readings for each day, beginning on December 1st.

From what I have read of Ann Voskamp in the past, she is a very descriptive writer, and paints vivid pictures with her words, so it came as no surprise at all to see, from the introduction alone, that this book is no exception!

"Big and glossy and loud and fast- that's how this bent-up world turns.

But God, when He comes- He shows up in this fetal ball.

He who carved the edges of the cosmos curved Himself into a fetal ball in the dark, 

tethered Himself to the uterine wall of a virgin, 

and lets cells divide, light splitting all white.

He gave up heavens that were not even large enough to contain Him 

and lets Himself be held in a hand.

The mystery so large becomes the Baby so small, 

and infinite God becomes infant."  

See what I mean? Reading this gives me shivers, and I think we need more of that wonder and awe when we think of the coming of Jesus. 

December so quickly turns into a nightmare wrapped up in a to-do list, so maybe this book will be just the ticket for gaining some perspective and remembering when the Giver became the Gift?

I'll let you know how it worked for me in about 4 weeks!!!