'HARVEST' - A MANY SPLENDORED THING

A woman plants carrot seeds in the spring, tends their growth and plucks them from the ground in the autumn -- HARVEST -- then she grates the carrots, adds other ingredients (flour, spices, etc), bakes the mixture in the oven and produces a carrot cake -- HARVEST.

The Oxford dictionary defines HARVEST as both the gathering in of crops, and the product or result of a given action.

Most modern individuals can identify with the latter, since our harvests occur frequently in our everyday living at work, at home, with our hobbies, in our institutions or in our communities.

At St. John's Rockwood Church, I invited people to bring a 'symbol of their harvest' to worship on Harvest Thanksgiving Sunday.

Their tradition is also to decorate their Church windows for Harvest Thanksgiving.

I was overjoyed when I entered the Church early on Harvest Thanksgiving Sunday to see that the windows displayed BOTH kinds of harvest. The photograph above has crops from the ground as well as music symbols and photos of family members to show that our harvests are expressed in many forms and shapes.

People brought other harvest symbols to the worship, for example, a home made quilt, a tatting kit with completed items, a book collection, part of a wooden owl collection, pumpkins, jam, etc. One person spoke of a shed he is building in his backyard as his harvest.

Jesus spoke of both kinds of harvest when He told His followers, 'the HARVEST is plentiful, but the workers are few'. Some things, it seems, never change. Today, the harvest is still plentiful in the lives of people, and we need more workers. As Jesus suggested, 'pray to the Lord of the harvest for more people to step up to the plate'.

A HARVEST EXERCISE - Ask yourself, 'what are 3-5 examples of HARVEST in my life?'.

Then follow the advice on the sign displayed outside a Church by which I drive frequently, 'COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS ...... GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD.