Reflections by Annette Roux, Retired Pastoral Associate
“The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.” Matthew 9:35-38
Life is a thing of many stages. What we do with ease at one time of life we can hardly manage at another. What we could not fathom doing when we were young, we find great joy in when we are old. Like the seasons through which we move, life itself is a never-ending series of harvests, a different fruit for every time. The skill of life, of course, lies in harvesting well and in taking the best that life has to give at any stage, in being patient with ourselves along our way. The Sufi tell a story about what happens when we force things: Once upon a time, a seeker found a cocoon resting quietly. Intent on seeing the butterfly within, the seeker held the cocoon in loving hands, breathed warm breath upon it and watched with excitement as the butterfly emerged. But hardly had the newly hatched beauty spread its wings then it died. “Why did my butterfly die?” the seeker asked the Holy One. “To teach you a lesson,” the Holy One said. “Everything must be born in due time; nothing can be rushed.”
The secret of life is to let every segment of it produce its own yield at its own pace. Every period has something new to teach us: The harvest of youth is achievement; the harvest of middle age is perspective; the harvest of old age is wisdom; the harvest of a life well lived is eternity in the presence of God.
