Thursday, November 16, 2017

Thankful Author 2017- Ta'Mara Hanscom


I love Thanksgiving. It’s always been my favorite holiday because it opens the door to the Christmas season. We make a turkey (even if we’re alone) and we put up our tree. When the kids were little we started the party the night before baking and decorating Christmas cookies. We’d be up until the wee hours of the morning, get a little bit of sleep, and then get up and put the turkey in the oven. Those were the days! Of course, we were a lot younger then.

Thanksgiving changed for my husband and me in 1984, and has been a very poignant time since then. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still my favorite holiday, but it now gives us somber pause, reminding us of Jesus' redemptive work in all things. Each year we are reminded of the baby we lost on Thanksgiving in 1984, and then of the baby we brought home on Thanksgiving in 1989.
I’m certain that this year will be no different. And as we suffer many griefs throughout the year (and who doesn’t) God's redemptive work in the past gives us hope and we can be thankful that He knows the deepest parts of our hearts in each matter.
Leviticus 23:33-43 (the Feast of Booths) reminds us that Thanksgiving was God's idea. And as I was studying these Scriptures in order to teach about Thanksgiving this week, I saw something in my commentary (on Psalm 118) that never dawned on me before and I want to share that with you:

This Psalm praises the Lord for His unending love for His people. It may have been the last words sung by Jesus and His disciples before He went to the Garden of Gethsemane, where He was arrested and led to His death (Matt. 26:30; Mark 14:26). It will also be sung before Christ’s return to defeat the forces of evil and to rule the world at the end of history (compare Psalm 118:26 with Matt. 23:39). When reading this psalm, consider what might have been in Christ’s mind when He sang it for the last time. 
—Fire Bible Commentary

If the commentator's supposition is accurate that would mean that Jesus was giving thanks for God's greatness and mercy before He gave His life for our freedom. 
That's awesome.
I wonder this morning (I wish I had time to look in my older commentaries for it!) if the Pilgrims had set out to celebrate a "Feast of Booths" on that first Thanksgiving, giving thanks not only for the food the Lord had provided, but for His extravagance in Jesus.
This Thanksgiving, I pray that we’ll all sit down to our delicious turkey dinners and be thankful for God’s redemptive work in our lives. He gives us a freedom that is not controlled by government or political leaders, and in that there is a peace that passeth all understanding.
© 2017, Ta`Mara Hanscom




The Pretender Blurb: 

The Pretender: A Blackguard in Disguise is the first volume of 5 in the family epic series The Caselli Family Series. It begins in South Dakota in 1975 where eighteen-year-olds could order 3.2 beers in a bar and loaded guns were kept under the counter. Frankie Valli sang My Eyes Adored You, and American soldiers returning from Vietnam struggled with their new reality.
​It’s within this tumultuous season of American history that Tillie Caselli meets Noah Hansen, and they are never the same again. Their lives were mysteriously intertwined – and had been for many years – yet they had no idea.
Buy Links





Pit of Ambition Blurb:

Pit of Ambition is the second volume of 5 in the family epic series The Caselli Family Series.
Five years have passed since Noah and Tillie’s “chance” meeting. They’ve married other people by now, and are both beginning their families.
In the pursuit of professional and political success, Alex runs headlong into a pit of pride and ambition...and Giuseppe begins to hate the husband he chose for his daughter.

Buy Links



Enter for a chance to win 1 set of TaMara's first 2 volumes of The Caselli Family series (as seen above) by joining her email list.



5 comments:

  1. I love Thanksgiving because it's that time in between the sugar-rush of candy on Halloween and the present-opening madness of Christmas. A time to just sit back and reflect on the many blessings God has bestowed.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You post made me stop, pause, and reflect, TaMara. Thank you, and wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving.

    ReplyDelete
  3. So touched by how special Thanksgiving is to you, and for such reasons! Have a wonderful holiday.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I am thankful that your faith gives you hope and peace. I believe we are taught morals and strength of character and should use those skills to affect change for the good of society. Change comes through standing up for what we know is right...not passively watching and waiting.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Beautiful post. Wishing you and yours the "peace that passeth all understanding." Happy Thanksgiving.

    ReplyDelete