Rather than a Biblical reflection this week, I thought I’d offer some thoughts you might use as a prayer of reflection, building on the core images in our Harvest services: Soil, Seed, and Fruit.

Soil is the source of all our harvests. It is the place that welcomes the seeds, offers them shelter and protection, gives them the warmth they need, and provides the nutrition necessary to begin their growth into fully formed plants. It is all around them, so much so that it is often overlooked as just the background to their existence. As human beings, we are held in a similar way by the God who creates and loves us. He surrounds us so completely that it becomes easy to overlook or undervalue. Yet it is from Him that we receive the most basic essence we need for life. As you begin in prayer, take a moment to settle yourself into the God who surrounds you. Open your attention to His presence—mentally, physically, and spiritually. Take the time to observe and absorb the love in which you live, move, and have your being. Enjoy being held, nurtured, and nourished. There is no need for words here—just be the seed embraced by the ground and source of being. When we’re ready, we might consider the seed itself. A wonderful distillation of potential, capable of far more than could rightly be imagined. The acorn that becomes the oak, the grain that will bend in the winds as a field of corn, the spores that float on the wind to extend the mycelial network that binds so many things together and supports such life… who could know from these fragile things what great goodness they can bring into the world? If you are the seed embraced by God, what is the great goodness in you that can barely yet be glimpsed? Who are you when you are fully reconciled to Him? How beautiful and amazing you are! Dare you, in this moment, catch a glimpse of that reality? Can you expand your sense of self into the fullness of eternity, and draw something of that grand vision back into the now? What would it look like, how would it be manifest, what would be its fruit? Fruit. The fulfilment of a purpose? A source of nourishment? An enticement to come closer and partake? It is all of these things, as it is a tangible, shareable manifestation of the life and work of the plant that produces it. Yet each plant bears fruit of its own type, in its own time and season. What, right now, in this moment with God, are the fruits in your life He wants to bring to your attention? Where are you flourishing? Where are you granting life to others? How are you enticing them to join this dance with the Creator? In there, is there any challenge—from you or from Him? Is there a way in which you yearn to grow and flourish, and need to ask His help? Is there something He is calling you to become? Consider all this. Be led by the God who loves you—into yourself and into Him; and through it all, drifting in the breeze and breath of the Spirit, be thankful.