A friend of mine invited me to a fall get-together recently and included the following request: bring your favorite fall poem to share.
I’ve never considered myself much of a poetry fan, so nothing came to mind immediately. Indeed, I sat there trying to think which of the many authors I know might be most likely to have a decent fall poem.
“Wait a minute,” I suddenly realized. “I do have lots of favorite poems, only they’re not the point-blank ones. They’re the ones that are set to music—also known as hymns.”
In that light, the task became daunting in another way as many fall hymns sprang to mind—which should I choose?
I finally settled on We Plough the Fields and Scatter, of which the text and music are recorded below.
1 We plow the fields and scatter the good seed on the land,
But it is fed and watered by God’s almighty hand.
He sends the snow in winter, the warmth to swell the grain,
The breezes and the sunshine, and soft refreshing rain.Refrain:
All good gifts around us are sent from heav’n above;
Then thank the Lord, O thank the Lord for all His love.2 He only is the maker of all things near and far;
He paints the wayside flower, He lights the evening star.
The wind and waves obey Him, by Him the birds are fed;
Much more to us, His children, He gives our daily bread. [Refrain]3 We thank You, our Creator, for all things bright and good:
The seedtime and the harvest, our life, our health, our food.
Accept the gifts we offer for all Your love imparts;
Accept what You most welcome: our humble, thankful hearts! [Refrain]
Although the recording above is stately, I often hear the tune in my mind as a bubbling, upbeat one—the kind of song that children would have joined hands and danced around in a circle singing at an old-time harvest festival. It clearly expresses the idea of harvest—that we are the ones who plant and labor, but that in the end, God is the one who truly gets the credit for a bountiful yield.
I saw a bit of this in my own garden this year. Most of it turned out great. I got it in early, the rain poured down, and my seeds popped up beautifully, particularly my carrots. I was quite pleased by this, and even began planning that at the rate those lush carrot tops were growing, I could likely harvest them and do another planting for a second crop before winter!
Alas, those carrots, which promised to be the best yield I’d ever had, looked beautiful on the top, but had almost nothing to show on the bottom—the exact opposite from other years, when the tops come up pitifully, but the actual carrot part is long, with a lush orange color and a crisp freshness unlike any store carrots you’ve ever tasted.
I can’t help but think about how those carrots are like our life. Sometimes it looks like life is beautifully smooth sailing, that our lives are perfect without a flaw. Other times, our lives are in shambles, scrawny and beaten down by troubles, looking like a bedraggled bed of carrot tops. The funny thing is, the fruit in each of these situations is often opposite of what it appears on the surface. The perfect, smooth-sailing life doesn’t yield much fruit, but the one that appears a wreck often has the most depth and sweetness and harvest.
We Plough the Fields and Scatter hints at this same truth. We can work and try our best to make everything in our lives succeed, but any success we do have in life is all attributable to our Maker. And sometimes, the fruit of the harvest is all that much sweeter because of the metaphorical snow and wind and waves that He sends into our lives. Yes, those same storms that seem to beat us down and leave us sitting in the mud and trying to figure out how to pick up the pieces are also the “good gifts” that are sent from Heaven above. They don’t seem fun at the time, but when harvest time rolls around, they yield the best fruit of all.
This Thanksgiving, I am standing in awe at how my own life’s difficulties—particularly one saga that’s lasted for a number of years—are actually coming full circle and turning into an amazing story of God’s faithfulness. That so-called carrot bed in my life looked trampled and useless, yet somehow, God worked to make a beautiful crop.
I know that I’m likely not alone in this. Each of us has some area in our lives at some point in time that looks like a bedraggled carrot bed, and we’re tempted to view it as a sign of God’s forgetfulness and lack of care.
Don’t fall into that trap; instead, look at it as a good gift, thank God for it, and then sit back and wait. You will likely never see a greater sign of His love than the harvest He brings from that situation.
“The Lord hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad.
Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south.
They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” - Psalm 126:3-6
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Enjoyed this post a LOT! We do have so much to be thankful for. And all the past (problems and all) has created a much better appreciation for today!
Beautiful!!