Harvest is traditionally a time in the church calendar to celebrate the goodness and bounty of creation. For centuries, we have thanked God for providing us with food to eat; for supplies to help us through the long winter months; and for fields ready to be sown with next years crops. More than any time of year, it shows us the amazing circle of life that God created, and continues to create as we sow and reap in partnership with him.
In modern Western culture, harvest also illustrates just how far we have moved away from this natural cycle, and how disconnected we feel from it. It almost seems like a festival out of sync with itself. Outside of rural communities, we have little sense of the cycle it celebrates.
So as I reflect on this yearly celebration of harvest, I am reminded of three things:
1. how we, as created beings, are designed to live to the rhythms and seasons of Gods created order;
2. how this rhythm helps us to live in a spirit of grace and follow Gods commands to love others and to care for creation; and
3. how disrupting this rythm harms us, our world, and other people.
I’ve explored these themes in more detail in a new article, Living in God’s rhythm helps us care for the world. And we’ve also recently uploaded some new visuals on a similar theme – Creation care: reflection and intercessions – which provide an adaptable presentation you can use for corporate reflection and/or intercession at any time of the year.
I hope you’ll find them useful this autumn as you too take time to reflect and pray about living in God’s rhythm.
Jill Andrews