Dear
Friends
This
month we celebrate Harvest, with our Family Service on Sunday 28th
at 10am. At this time of the year, we once again remember the wonder of all
of God’s creation and thank Him for all the he gives us to keep us
healthy and well.
On
the subject of creation I recently heard an amusing story. A little boy had
to write a report for school, so he went to his mother and asked, “Mummy,
where did I come from?” Surprised at hearing such a question from her
child, the mother discreetly answered, “Um, the stork brought you.”
“And where did YOU come from?” the boy continued. “Well, the stork
brought me, just like he brought you. Now go to your room. No more
questions, please.”
But the boy
persisted. “What about Grandma? Where did Grandma come from?” “Look,
the stork brought Grandma, the stork brought me, the stork brought you! Now
go to your room. I do not want to talk about this any more!”
So the little
boy went to his room and began writing his report. “Our family hasn’t
had a normal birth in three generations...”
Why do I mention
this story as we think about the theme of Harvest? It is because, in truth,
Harvest is no longer just about celebrating the seasonal gathering in of
the crops. Any visit to the local supermarket will reveal that Harvest is
these days a 365 day a year event. We can now buy strawberries in December
and apples in February, cherries in January and pears in March – we long ago lost touch with the seasons in terms of what
we can eat or buy. Only if we journey out into the orchards of Kent are we
reminded that the trees still bear their fruit at this time of the year.
Schoolchildren can easily be forgiven for not relating to the theme of
Harvest in the way they would have fifty years ago.
We
therefore need to find a deeper meaning for Harvest in today’s world.
Yes, we must thank God for all the food we receive, and be especially
grateful that the rich produce on offer in our shops is something our
grandparents could scarcely have dreamed of when they were young. It is so
easy to take all of this for granted, so Harvest is a time for being
grateful for all that we are given.
The
deeper meaning I am referring to is this: that at Harvest we should be
grateful for life itself. It is easy to be weighed down by life’s
problems, and to lose sight of the fact that life itself is a wonderful
gift. Every loved one, every day, is a gift to each of us, and when we take
it all for granted our appreciation of life is diminished. In his poem
“Gratefulness” the great poet George Herbert once wrote:
