Around our house November has always been a busy month, there are several birthdays in our family. There used to be more. On the birthdays of loved ones we used to celebrate, we now pause to think about and recall their stories on their day. Though we miss them we know the joy where they are is ours to come.
This month is my favorite, in part because, I too, celebrate a birthday; but it holds so much more than birthdays-
Here in Texas, we’ve been living through our extended summer. Other parts of the country are experiencing snow in earnest about this time; yet we are just now able to turn the AC off. Where leaves have been colorful for a month or more in cooler parts, we have had the dried up grey-green-brown leaves and burnt yellow-brown grass as the last of the summer heat made its final mark.
The horse apples are falling from the trees and that’s how we know the cool of the year has arrived and is going to stick around for a while.
The full moon shows its silvery face bright in the cool night and leaves its print on the lake for us to follow into winter’s delight. Well, some of us delight in winter. With the changing of the seasons there are always those who breathe that sigh of relief that we can pull out the long sleeved shirts and a light sweater or two; where others are bemoaning the fact that the temp has dipped below 90.
Now’s the time we all take a breath and feel the energy return again; our steps are brisk and purposeful. The crops are harvested. The hay is baled, the corn is gathered into the corncribs, the cotton has been picked and taken to market. Now we see the fruit of our labor and can rest a while. The baking begins; the pumpkins arrive, the smells of cinnamon and allspice and clove fill the air with sage and rosemary not far behind.
And, I know that this, dear friends, has nothing to do with life, the universe and everything. But it does remind us that life, the universe and everything comes from the Father. The seasons change once again and we see His provision in remarkable ways..
Thanksgiving is on the horizon and it’s harvest time. A time for thanks for all that we’ve been given back from the earth; a time for thanks for all things that come from the Father’s Hand; a time to be gracious ourselves and provide for those who cannot provide for themselves.
Regardless of the reasons; this is the season we are called to give where we can to help them get through the winter. It is not our place to judge whether others deserve our help or whether they will use what we give them in the manner we would choose for them. We are called to give out of our abundance. And whether your abundance is baking pumpkin bread for the neighbors, donating a coat or two, giving warm blankets to shelters or helping out at the food bank, we are His hands and His feet to the world.
The land yields its harvest; God, our God, blesses us. May God bless us still, so that all the ends of the earth will fear him. Psalm 67:6-7