submitted by Chaplain Don Taws
The month of September is the time of fruitfulness in gathering in the wealth of produce resulting from the planting of crops. The fruit and vegetable stands are filling up, and the stores are over-flowing with fresh food for our use.
We have had a ‘Farmers’ Market’ here at our Village to partake of the food from our own gardens. It is a wonderful opportunity to pause to give thanks to God for the bounty with which we have been blessed.
We here at Carolina Village are in the mature years of our lives, having lived long and fruitful times of love and family and work. It is good to reflect on God’s goodness in our days and to thank Him for being able to live in this land of freedom and plenty.
There is a great hymn that we sing at harvest time. ‘Come, ye thankful people, come, raise the song of harvest home’. It is a song about the fruit of the land being gathered in before the storms of winter. It is often sung at Thanksgiving time in gratitude to God for His blessings.
But there is another meaning to this hymn. It speaks of the time when God will bring to an end our lives, and this world, and encourages us to be ready for the Lord to take us to our ‘harvest home’. To thank God for the good life He has given us and be prepared for the time when we are gathered to our final home. May we all yield our hearts and lives to the ‘Lord of the Harvest’