"Harvest of Grace" - 10/30/25

Last spring, a church friend in Grand Forks invited my daughter Grace and me to visit his soybean field as he sowed the seeds. Throughout the summer, he shared updates with us, and just a few weeks ago, he sent a photo of the harvest.
Around the same time, friends from our Vincent church community brought us bags and boxes of apples, generously shared from their trees. These moments brought a quiet gratitude to my heart. The goodness of the land and the kindness of friends stirred a deeper reflection.


Scripture
“Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.” — 2 Corinthians 9:10 (NIV)
“The land yields its harvest; God, our God, blesses us.” — Psalm 67:6 (NIV)

Reflection
The harvest invites stillness. It invites a gaze that lingers on the rows of gathered fruit, on the grain resting beneath wide skies, on hands that have labored and hearts that have waited. In the hush of autumn, something eternal becomes visible. We are reminded that the earth bears more than we deserve, and often, more than we remember to ask.

The apostle speaks of a God who supplies both seed and bread. This same God enlarges the harvest, not just of our fields, but of our righteousness. There is a mystery here. What begins as a small act, like a seed laid into the earth, unfolds into provision, into nourishment, into shared abundance. And often, the harvest comes through others. Through friends who offer fruit from their trees, through those who tend to the land and labor quietly in faith.

There is a grace in the way the land responds to care. A grace in the patience of seasons. A grace in the joy of sharing. These graces mirror the heart of God, who plants deeply within us the seeds of compassion, generosity, and trust.

In Korean tradition, the time of 수확 (suhak, harvest) carries the spirit of 나눔 (nanum, sharing). After the labor comes a gathering, and then, an opening of hands. To share from one’s harvest is to honor the journey of the seed and the sacredness of enough. It is to recognize that blessing multiplies when it is given.

The apples shared, the soybean field tended, the updates given and received—these are not only stories of agriculture. They are stories of relationship, of presence, of grace passed quietly from one to another. Each harvest, each offering, becomes a liturgy of thanksgiving. A way of remembering that we live not by our toil alone, but by the mercy that allows things to grow.

Let this be a season of quiet gratitude. A time to notice the gifts that arrive not only in abundance, but in small, faithful offerings. May we receive them with open hands. And may we become, ourselves, a harvest of grace in the lives of others.

Prayer
Gracious God,
you who provide seed and tend the growth of all things seen and unseen, we thank you for this season's harvest—for the soybeans risen, for the apples gathered, for the hands that sowed and the hands that shared. In the giving and receiving may we glimpse your mercy; in the harvest and the sharing may we know your love. Cultivate in us a spirit of gratitude and generosity, that we may sow in faith, grow in your grace, and yield a harvest of righteousness for your glory. Amen.