At this time of year many in churches and schools will be celebrating a harvest festival. Volunteers in Food banks will probably (hopefully?) notice an increase in donations.
It is a time to remember and give thanks for our food, those who produce it and who are parts of the process of getting it ‘from farm to fork’.
Harvest festivals come in the autumn as the climax of the gathering of the fruits of the earth. It’s a process that fewer have direct connection with but good for all of us to remember those upon whom we have increasingly depended for many years.
Sometimes the seasons of the year are paralleled with the ‘seasons of life’. The ages at which each season applied will vary considerably, but the autumn of life is usually the years post-retirement.
It may be a time of awareness of a gradual deterioration in physical strength and fitness. It is also a time of reflection on life so far and the ‘legacy’ or ‘productivity’ or ‘fruits’ of life.
Often those fruits are hard to identify perhaps because sometimes they are not apparent very quickly. As seeds planted in the spring they may not bear fruit for many months, so seeds of life planted in the springtime of life may not bear fruit for many years.
Be encouraged by something I saw recently: “Think of the seeds you have planted. One day, someone will sit under a tree that has sprouted, and sing a thankful song for you.”
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