I slid the three-inch bolt through the bottom hole of the ten-inch terra cotta pot, then put five large washers down onto the bolt. Then I put the eight-inch terra cotta pot inside of the ten-inch one, down onto the bolt, and onto the washers. From there, I secured everything together with a bolt, finger tightening it so as not to risk breaking the pots. That resulted in something like a double bell arrangement, with an air chamber between the surfaces of the two pots.

I built a small greenhouse behind our home last year. That is what my terra cot pot arrangement is for. It gets cold during the winter, but heating it with an electric heater or even a propane heater is not cost-effective. For the last few nights, I have placed a lighted candle underneath those two pots, which I set up on bricks in the center of the floor. The flame from the candle heats the bolt and washers; the heat from there spreads to the pots and the air space between them and helps to at least knock the chill off all night long in that greenhouse.

I did not need to do any of this during the summer; during those hot months, the greenhouse stays sweltering hot.

God was so very good to give us seasons from the very beginning of His creation. Genesis 1:14 says, “And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.” Genesis 8:22 says, “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”

We are entering the late fall, and the winter will be close behind. Thanks to the wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, we commonly call this the holiday season. It is a time when our world generally cools for a while – in more ways than one.

Even in the ancient world, the spring of their year was commonly the time of war; 2 Samuel 11:1 speaks of it as being “the time when kings go forth to battle.” It seems that during the warm days of the year, fighting is often the norm, but when the leaves begin to fall and the snow begins to sweep in, people tend to slow down, and more importantly, cool off.

It does not take above-average perception to realize that, people-wise, the temperature is definitely rising to a very dangerous degree in our land right now. I am sitting at my desk typing this just hours after the news came down that a man apparently used his SUV as a weapon of mass destruction, driving it through a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin. I just checked the most current information, and as of this writing, there are five dead and more than forty injured, and a man named Darrell Brooks, who has a very long criminal history, is being questioned over the incident. (https://www.foxnews.com/live-news/wisconsin-waukesha-suv-plows-crowd-christmas-parade)

A Christmas parade.

A quick scroll of the news tells me this violent heat is not an aberration. On the same day in New York, a man on the subway was stabbed to death in an unprovoked attack. https://www.foxnews.com/us/new-york-man-stabbed-to-death-on-subway-train-in-unprovoked-attack-police

There will always be violence on earth till Jesus, the Prince of Peace comes. But there will also always be seasons on earth, including the cool days of late fall and winter, the days of Thanksgiving and Christmas. And each and every one of us has the power to use these cool-weather days to help produce cooler days in society as well. Again, we will never fix the world; thousands of years of violent humanity should have proven that to us quite nicely by now. But we can make it better around us, cooler, more peaceful, at least for a while.

So here are some suggestions.

Make sure that no one has to do the holidays alone. Each year I stand in the pulpit of my church and announce that anyone who does not have Thanksgiving plans is invited to our house to do Thanksgiving with us either for lunch or supper. Look around you, and make sure no one in your sphere of influence will be alone on those precious days.

Go Christmas caroling for shut-ins. Is that a cheesy anachronism? Absolutely. Does it cheer hearts and cool heated temperatures? Absolutely again.

Reach out to people of different races and different backgrounds, and do or say something to make their day better and brighten their entire holiday season. The devil and everyone who works for him desperately wants to get people hating each other based on skin color; shut those haters and their forked tongues out completely, and get to know those whom God gifted with far more or far less melanin than you.

Spend tons of time with family. Even those who share the same name and circle are often red-in-the-face with each other; the holidays are a great time to cool that down. Have everyone give thanks for something around the table. Reminisce over wonderful times past. Play board games. Watch Christmas specials. Get everyone together and read the account of the first Christmas from Luke 2:1-20 and Matthew 2:1-11.

This is a great time of year to cool things down.

Bo Wagner is pastor of the Cornerstone Baptist Church of Mooresboro, NC, a widely traveled evangelist, and the author of several books. His books are available on Amazon and at www.wordofhismouth.com. Pastor Wagner can be contacted by email at [email protected].