Combined Harvesting

25 Aug 2024 • Articles

Summer fruits and autumn harvests are essential for our physical welfare, just as spiritual thoughts and understandings are essential for our souls.

The house where I grew up was opposite a field where hay was grown. When I was very young the hay was cut by men with scythes and then they raked the hay into heaps ready to be pitchforked onto a horse-drawn cart. Later years brought a tractor which pulled a reaping machine and then returned pulling the hay cart. One day we saw a huge yellow machine driving round the field, cutting the dried grass, collecting it and then depositing large square blocks of bound hay onto the ground, all in one operation. We were amazed, and we were sure that the farmer was proud of owning this clever invention, but then we realised that it meant he worked alone, so his job became quite lonely.

Jesus told many parables about plants growing and crops being harvested. He suggested that human beings are like plants - God gives us all the potential and capability of growing from tiny beginnings into good, strong, useful plants which can be beautiful, bearing nourishing, health-giving fruit. When we are planted so that our roots sink into good, deep soil and where we can receive the right amount of sun, wind and rain, avoiding being choked by weeds, we will be fulfilled in growing as God intends. Then, when we are mature and ripe, we can be gathered together into the safety of God's storm-proof barn, where the angels will rejoice in the greatest Harvest Festival of all.

It may seem surprising that God cares so much for us, all through our earthly lives and beyond, but Jesus told those who had 'ears to hear' that we also have the privilege of being invited and expected to be labourers in God's harvest-field.Helping our heavenly Father to bring all the faithful safely, happily and healthily into his heavenly kingdom is a joy which helps to bind together all God's children.

Enjoy the beauty of the summer and the autumn sunshine,

Ann