September 2024
It’s harvest time!
I suppose harvest season truly is throughout summer and continues on into the fall, depending on what is being harvested. I love that there is quite a bit of fluidity to the harvest season, not like it’s dependent on one week or one month. Like nature, we all grow and bloom and fruit at different times. Additionally every season in turn impacts the harvest - how a field/orchard/soil is prepared and cared for (somewhat in our control) alongside how the weather fluctuates (outside of our control) all add up to what a harvest will look like. I hope we can each reflect on nature’s offerings as we consider what God is doing in us and through us in the season you find yourself in today.
This year I planted some Zinnia seeds from a grower in the Skagit Valley (Floret Flower if you want to check them out - they are doing some gorgeous things). It was a rough start with the late bouts of freezing weather in the spring, and evaluating when to get things out of the nursery and into the garden. In mid-summer I wondered whether anything was going to bloom at all! As if like a mirror to my own life, these flowers were late bloomers. Some were definitely worth the wait (see picture), and some have been a little more scraggly and unique (again, a mirror to my own life). I’ve been admiring the variety that has emerged - all different colors, and the petals have fluffed out into different shapes. Since I grew them from seed, I’m eager to see what their own seeds will produce, and started exploring harvesting my zinnia seeds.
The internet tells me to wait until the bloom is finished and wilted and the head is dead, then to cut it, cull the seeds, and let dry completely. As I’ve been doing this, I’m struck by the reality that a usually a cut flower, which we like to have on our tables and is often the goal from a florist for maximum enjoyment, is not a flower that can reproduce. A dead flower on the stem (one might argue, hanging out and impacting the beauty of a garden) is the one that will offer back something for the coming year. My garden box is currently a mix of fresh blooms and dried heads - I could say it’s to show the circle of life to my kids, but it’s also a metaphor for my own appreciation. We live in a culture that likes to curate experience - offer what is presentable and beautiful, clean and clear. With flowers perhaps, peak blooms only. Weeded, and not wild.
But life doesn’t seem to happen like that. As much as we’d like to curate our life experiences to be beautiful, clean, and robust, the mess always makes its way in. The weeds grow alongside the fruit/blossoms of our labor. Death comes, and its timing is outside our control. Life is wild, no matter our efforts at controlling it.
As I pull back the layers of dead petals and discover these little arrowhead seeds, full of potential for next year, I’m thankful for exposure to all seasons. To see that what is bright and inspiring at peak bloom, is still working hard while it looks dim and crinkly, to create something new for the next season. That even in death, life is at work. The Apostle Paul writes in his 2nd letter to the Corinthians: “We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.” (v.10-12) Our faith journey is often one of welcoming what every season brings our way, centering on the faithfulness of God to see us through, working new life in us.
May you have eyes to see the new life God is working - amidst the mess, grief, and death that may be mucking up your plans. God knows how to use compost. May resurrection work be taking place in you by the power of God’s Spirit, so that all may know the fullness of God’s love and power, particularly you!
Blessings on the journey,
Pastor Becca
