Sometimes it’s hard as a retiree to think about this being a time of harvest, but indeed it is. As I think about my years of teaching, beginning a new year with hopes and expectations, goals, reasons to achieve, I miss that “rush,” that little extra bit of enthusiasm that comes with the first week of school. But as a retiree, days seem regular, routine, predictable, and sometimes, well, a bit boring.
Then I read a verse like this: 2nd Corinthians 9:10-11 says: “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 rightouusness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.”
Ah, yes, we are blessed with the gift of unfettered, unassigned time. Imagine all those duty-filled, obligation-crammed years when family, work, obligations, and responsibilities weighed us down. All of that is in the past. Just yesterday we were able to let our daughter use our car for the day. It was an opportunity to bless her. Wouldn’t you know it, on the night before her second day of teaching for the year, her garage door failed, locking her car in its prison. We were able to say, “No problem. Our plans are flexible.” Little did we know our air-conditioner would fail and we were stuck home. We were able to get it temporarily fixed. Of course, we were able to talk with the service man for a while, getting to know him and his issues with knee surgery. I was able to share my recuperation from hip surgery three weeks ago. In our former busy life, we could not have had that conversation. We would have been too rushed to engage in conversation.
I am once more able to write my blog each day. I missed doing this during the summer. Now I can plan the new book I’m working on. Yesterday I was able to take time to submit my last book to a competition for a prize. It’s always fun to think about possibilities.
I am able to share my garden plants with friends who will love them as I have. They will reap my harvest of beautiful plants in my gardens. I no longer can care for them. Now, they will have new homes. It’s a way I can bless others. And the next two weekends, we can help out with the Symphony production of Sound of Music There are indeed moments of fruitful harvest, and Paul reminded me of that today. May God bless you with whatever seeds you are planting and harvesting in this season of your lives as well.
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