Abundant Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a frustrating time of year for gardeners.  The vegetables are long gone except for some root crops that can endure early frosts.  Kale, of course, is so nasty that the frost makes it better.  The flowers also are gone except for geraniums that are remarkably resilient.  In the past, I’ve seen geraniums in full flower and vigor as late as December in front of our local Ladies Home.

One frustration is that many vegetables have myriads of small fruits and blossoms that would bear a great harvest with another month of warm and sunny weather.  And many groups of flowers are full in leaf and flower as well.  It seems that the season ends just when it is at its best.  But, if all these did not die, there would be no renewal in the spring and they would surely be decimated by disease and pests. In the natural world, as in the spiritual, there must be death in order for there to be new life.  “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it.” – Mark 8:35  “If by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”  Romans 8:13

Another frustration is that so much produce is left rotting on the ground.  The joys of composting comfort me in this loss, but it is still frustrating.  I lose dozens of tomatoes, peppers, beans and other things in my small backyard garden every year.  There is an apple tree at Breitbeck Park that has bushels of apples littered at its base.  All the orchards I’ve visited over the years have truckloads of perfectly good apples scattered on the ground.  Why such waste?

It seems to me that it is not so much that we are wasteful as that the Lord is super abundant in His goodness to all mankind.  He gives us so much in our harvests that we are unable to use it all.  Our cup overflows every year (Psalm 23:5).  We must therefore return thanks to the Lord in the same measure; namely, overflowing all day, every day, throughout the years.  But the annual Thanksgiving holiday is a special and suitable occasion to thank God for His abundant goodness.  “For all things are for your sakes, so that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God”  - 2 Corinthians 4:15. 

Enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday and be sure to return thanks to God in keeping with His generous goodness to you even as His abundance includes a measure of loss.

Kit Swartz Teaching Elder Emeritus RPC Oswego, NY