Harvest Matters

Being a typical suburban housewife (to the extent that there actually is such a thing), I am dismayed from time to time at the extent to which my children are removed from awareness of the food supply. The same is true for me, of course, but at least I had occasion to ride on the combine with my grandfather and spend days of summer prepping corn and beans for canning and other tasks that brought me at least a little closer to the process. 

I think that there are indeed a few things we lose in being so far removed from our food sources.  I think we probably lose a shade of thankfulness.  When the harvest is providing not only our own sustenance, but also all our other income, I expect we are more grateful than when the food is coming from the grocery store, and said store has always had plenty of it there to sell. Greater awareness brings greater gratitude.

Second, I wonder whether being closer to the process creates a greater sense of the dependence we have on God for all good things.  Drought or pests might drive prices up for my family, but they are unlikely to leave us looking for food.  We still recognize our dependence on the Lord for income and even recognize our lack of control over growing conditions, but we certainly do not recognize it to the extent a farmer would.

Third, I think we have to try harder to relate to some of Jesus's words in the gospel.  Many of his parables that made absolute sense to his agrarian audiences send us to commentaries for interpretation. We have to search to get the impact of words that might strike a different audience with full force.

These are the things I have been musing upon as I've been thinking about a true harvest hymn, "Come, Ye Thankful People, Come."  Note how many references in this song are both agricultural and biblical.

Come, ye thankful people, come, raise the song of harvest home;


All is safely gathered in, ere the winter storms begin.


God our Maker doth provide for our wants to be supplied;


Come to God’s own temple, come, raise the song of harvest home.

All the world is God’s own field, fruit unto His praise to yield;

Wheat and tares together sown unto joy or sorrow grown.


First the blade and then the ear, then the full corn shall appear;


Lord of harvest, grant that we wholesome grain and pure may be.

For the Lord our God shall come, and shall take His harvest home;

From His field shall in that day all offenses purge away,


Giving angels charge at last in the fire the tares to cast;


But the fruitful ears to store in His garner evermore.

Even so, Lord, quickly come, bring Thy final harvest home;


Gather Thou Thy people in, free from sorrow, free from sin,


There, forever purified, in Thy garner to abide;


Come, with all Thine angels come, raise the glorious harvest home.

To me, there is just something very heartfelt and simple about this song. My perception may also be colored by a reference to this song in a favorite book.

In The Magician's Nephew (and I assume that if anyone actually reads this entry, you have probably read the Narnia books or you probably wouldn't have stuck around to read a blog about hymns), Digory and Polly have jumped from London to the Wood Between the Worlds, bringing Jadis, Uncle Andrew, a London cabby, and his horse with them.  They move from the Wood into a land that is dark and empty.  As they try to figure out what has happened, the cabby acts as a calming influence.

And if we're dead -- which I don't deny it might be -- well, you got to remember that worse things 'appen at sea and a chap's got to die sometime. And there ain't nothing to be afraid of if a chap's led a decent life. And if you ask me, I think the best thing we could do to pass the time would be sing a 'ymn.

And he did. He struck up at once a harvest thanksgiving hymn, all about crops being "safely gathered in."

I didn't particularly notice this passage as a child, I don't suppose.  But it turns out that by the time I read The Magician's Nephew to my children, I had already taught them "Come, Ye Thankful People, Come," and of course it was fun to watch them notice the allusion. But more than that, it made me think about the worship responses.  I think the first response when we encounter God is likely to be awe.  He is, of course, awesome in the truest sense of the word, and if we have come into His presence, we will be awestruck.  But I think the cabby's response to sensing an impending encounter with the Holy was thankfulness, as is ours.  We are thankful that He is mindful of us, that He desires a relationship with us, and that He has acted to make that relationship possible. Lord, accept the worship of Your thankful people!