The harvest has begun! I noticed the other day, as I was driving that several fields had been harvested and indeed the straw had been baled – those giant cotton reels. It always reminds me of the hymn that is sometimes sung at Harvest Festivals – “Fair waved the golden corn, in Canaan’s pleasant land” In the quite breezy weather we have been experiencing of late, the fields of corn certainly have been waving, as if to say “We are ready for harvesting”. With the corn harvest having just begun, we are a few weeks away from celebrating “all is safely gathered in”, but it will come very quickly as the summer draws on.
We are very fortunate in this country to be able to rely on the seasons in a way that is fairly stable, whilst some countries of the world experience severe drought, and some others are constantly battling wind and rain and only have a short span of time to gather in any crops that they have grown. It would seem that we are becoming less self-sufficient on the crops we grow, and that we rely more and more on importing food from other lands. We are losing a lot of farming land to the building of houses and warehouses: land that can never be returned to arable.
When the world was created there was enough for all to live a comfortable life, relying on their crops and produce, and yet we have destroyed some of those resources through greed, and for other reasons, such that we struggle to distribute and meet the needs of all people across the world. I hope and pray that we continue to enjoy what the land gives to us, but that we might replenish its resources for generations to come. May we continue to see the fair waving of the golden corn!
May I wish you God’s blessings.
Revd Graham
