Sharing and Appreciating
‘Harvest’ is one of those times in the year when people most appreciate the abundance of gifts and blessings, in the form of produce. Farmers and ‘home-spun’ gardeners reap the benefit – literally – from their season of growing. We lift and store the produce to use and appreciate throughout coming months. Truly this is a time for all to give thanks; thanks to God, the Creator, of all.
It is also a time, when many feel able to enter over the threshold of church (big C & little c) to share in that giving of thanks. And that ‘sharing’ and being together can be a wonderful and uplifting experience; when together, we see and realise the variety and complexity of gifts that are within each and every one of us; ‘us’ – not just ‘in produce’!
That will be the moment of true thanksgiving, when as ‘people of God’ – humanity made in His image – we can meet together, wherever we live and share in our thanks.
God has made people as varied and diverse as you can possibly imagine. I wonder why?
As we celebrate Harvest Thanksgiving this season, please, may we remember to let the ‘spirit of harvest’ continue in our heart and to seek to share and appreciate the goodness, blessings and giftedness that God has provided in others around us. Then and only then will we see an expression of the real harvest that is God’s Kingdom, spoken of in the Bible, (Galatians 6: 9-10; 1 Corinthians 9; 11; and Matthew 9: 35-38) visible and active in our parishes.
Wendy Gourlay