Harvest Time

Garden Potatoes!

The concept of Thanksgiving has different meaning to folks.
For some, it’s a joyous time to gather with loved ones and feast abundantly!
For some, it’s a time still in the fields, hoping to get the crop off before the snow flies.
For some, it’s a welcome long weekend to get that yardwork done.
For some, it’s not a festival at all, but just another weekend struggling to get by.

In the church, we recognise this as Harvest Thanksgiving – a time to be especially grateful for the harvest. In times gone by, the harvest was essential for supplying the necessities to make it through the winter. With the luxury of grocery stores, canned goods, and freezers, we’ve decreased our reliance on one large harvest.
Yet: it remains. The crops still come off, the stores are filled, and we prepare to hunker down.

My garden this year was not the best producer; yes, I have a bunch of potatoes in the root cellar, the freezer is full, and the canner and dehydrator did their annual duty to preserve what they could.
Yet I know that if the only food I could eat this winter is what I’ve grown, I know I would go hungry.

So I have spent some time considering what else the harvest looks like, and what else I can focus my gratitude on this joyous weekend.
What relationships have I tended to, and reap the benefits from?
What communities am I a part of, that feed my spirit?
What nourishment have I stored in my faith, that it will sustain me year-round?

The harvest can mean many things to us; I invite us to celebrate not only the feast of the weekend (for those of us who will feast!) but also the fulfillment of the harvest in our emotional and spiritual lives. For indeed, God has given us every good thing – and we are blessed to give thanks.