How quickly we forget
Well here we are again, coming to the end of Harvest festival season. The crops are in, churches have been adorned, services have been taken, produce has been sold or donated to help those who are in greater need. And hopefully time has been taken in amongst it all to say thank you to God for all the bounty we receive. I love it and readily admit I love the traditions. Long may they continue. I say this in spite of what I’ve said in a previous ‘Thought for the Month’ about the downsides of traditions and rituals – that all too often they become more important than the faith they were designed to enhance, sometimes even smothering out the true message of the Gospels. But they have their upside too.
I confess that I’m often guilty of the ‘Out of sight, out of mind’ syndrome, I’m not sure it’s technically a syndrome but you get my drift. At Harvest we sing hymns with lines thanking God for the bounty of our harvest, for creatures great and small. Yet, once the harvest display is down and we move to the next project, many of us (unless we’re farmers) will not give much thought about how we are going to get to the next harvest, or how God’s creation will continue to function. This is not just true of harvest….
Over the last decade or so there seems to have been a proliferation of ‘celebration’ ‘remembrance’ and awareness days’ some more meaningful than others, would you believe there’s a ‘National Whipped Cream Day’ on 5th January and that the 17th of January is ‘National Chocolate Cake Day’! that’s just two of frankly a rather bizarre collection. But of course, there are the more serious ones. Days to raise our awareness of serious issues in the world, Remembrance days to recall the sacrifice of others. Thanksgiving days, Celebration Days. Although it sometimes seems over the top, and in some cases simply good business for greetings card manufactures and sellers, there are occasions and causes that are worth remembering..
The Church has its fair share of ‘Days’ too and the truth is, as mere humans, we don’t have the capacity to hold all these things in our minds seven days a week 52 weeks of the year. So this is where ‘days’ or ‘seasons’ set aside to remember God’s blessing such as Christmas, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, Remembrance, Harvest… are so important – Lest we forget!
In realising that we are all guilty, to some degree, of ‘Out of sight, out of mind’ It’s worth remembering that we have a God for whom, in spite of the way we humans treat His world, that is not the case, as the Psalmist and some verses from Genesis remind us:
Psalm 121 (N.I.V.)
1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
4 indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The Lord watches over you—
the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
6 the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
7 The Lord will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
8 the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.
Genesis 8
22 “As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease.”