Our Thanksgiving dinner ended with a time of reflection, praise and gratitude. Ten of us total, and the words came with a deep sense of appreciation, emotion and introspection.
Kevin, a family friend that had joined our clan for the day with his wife, Karen, delivered a profound and powerful word. His thoughts circled around the embers of family memories that took him back to rural Indiana and a farming community that had been home for him. Kevin’s comments escorted us to a rationale for true thanksgiving that he alone could connect us to. He talked about the delight that accompanies Thanksgiving on the farm and the corresponding relaxation that comes in late November. “It’s a time when we celebrate empty fields and full bins.”
The harvest. The thanksgiving. Because months of planting, pulling, pruning and praying had produced a crop to be celebrated. Yes, the fields that had been the focus of activity for months are now empty and lifeless. The same fields that had only months before been full of rich black soil churned to a perfect, receptive, earthy batter. The same soil that had collided with the hope filled seeds, with the appropriate precipitation, and with the sunshine and warmth of spring and summer. This confluence of activity, components and design had produced an explosion of growth. Unexplainable, miraculous, abundant and clearly worthy of thanks.
I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels, a plentiful harvest of new lives. Those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity. ~ John 12:24, 25
A plentiful harvest. Busy fields giving way to full bins. Yes, it’s indeed time to celebrate empty fields, for God, and God alone has seen fit to fill the bins.
Happy Thanksgiving.
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