What a wonderful sight this is; nothing better than to see the fruits of many weeks’ work ending with the harvest.
In my younger years farming was all around me, with my father working on the land and my older brother working at Rogers Engineers in Great Barford repairing farm machinery. Occasionally I would get to go with my brother to a farm wherever he was called to repair a tractor or a combine harvester, and so I got to visit many farms in this area.
We have not quite reached harvest thanksgiving in church, which comes at the end of September/beginning of October, but on Sunday we sang the hymn, “For the fruits of his creation, thanks be to God.” The hymn moves on to speak of the ploughing and sowing, and how the seed grows out of the darkness of the earth to produce the grain we rely on to live.
Verses two and three take the theme of thanksgiving a couple of stages further, as it mentions the work that is done through helping our neighbours and sharing the resources we have with those who have little or nothing. And taking us one more step, verse three says thank you for the good we all inherit from the spirit of God within us. As we are all made in the image of God, we all have deep within us his love. I hope that we can discover that love deep inside us, so that through our lives we can love and share with those around us.
Let us gives thanks to God for all that we receive from him: the harvest of the field and the harvest of the heart.
With God’s peace and blessing
Revd Graham
