The calendar has turned, and so has the weather. Beautiful cooler days have replaced our summer of gasping at the temperatures and hibernating inside. The feeling of fall has brought wonderful home made displays of pumpkins and exotic gourds, not to mention Halloween paraphernalia onto front yards and doors. It happened almost overnight, and the joy of the season seems more evident this year than the last two years. It bodes well for the holiday season that lies ahead.

The ancient Greeks lived in anxiety that the springtime might not return in any given year, for their gods were capricious and arbitrary, and the people lacked faith that spring and summer would surely return and their fall harvest would come.

For the Hebrews, however, the Word of God told them, “As long as the earth endures, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” (Genesis 8:22) And, the psalmist wrote, “The land yields its harvest; God our God blesses us. May God Bless us still, so that all the ends of the earth may fear Him.” (Psalm 67:7)

The harvest is the culmination of a spring and summer’s worth of labors, and holds the promise of well-being for the future. One of God’s strongest blessings in the Old Testament concerns the harvest: “You will be eating last year’s harvest when you will have to move it out to make room for the new.” (Leviticus 26:10) The promise of abundance and well-being accompanies God’s covenant with Israel.

When Jesus looked out at the fields of grain in Samaria he compared it to the spiritual harvest of faithful souls: “I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. (John 4:35)

Though we’re not all farmers, we all can plant and harvest spiritual seeds in our lives with our families, friends, neighbors, and even strangers. The action of a single woman who anointed Jesus’ feet has resonated for over two millennia in the Scriptures. (Mark 14:9)

Celebrating the harvest is a display of thanksgiving and joy for God’s provision. In the midst of uncertainties, pumpkins on the lawn remind us of a goodness that never leaves, a Spirit that endures and looks up and makes us glad together.

Love in Him,

Prue