As we come to the end of our season of Harvest Festivals, I rejoice in all that’s been celebrated. In church and in school festivals we’ve received so many donations of food for Bicester Foodbank as people have shared with huge generosity, thanking our generous God for all he gives us.

We’ve considered the changing of the seasons and the promise it gives that God is with us in all the changing scenes of life; that each season plays its part in producing the food that we need. In one of the schools, I showed the seven letters of the word HARVEST in the colours of the rainbow as a sign of God’s love and care for us.

We’ve examined some church harvest decorations to help us in our spiritual journey: the Harvest Wheatsheaf Loaf with its traditional little mouse showing God’s care for all of us even down to the tiniest of creatures; an abundance of apples reminding us we are the apple of God’s eye; the sunflower with its heliotropic characteristic encouraging us to turn to the one true light, our Lord Jesus Christ.

We’ve explored God’s call to give our first and our best from the description of the Festival of the First Fruits in Deuteronomy, learning how this would begin with noticing the first buds on the plants and marking them out to be the gifts to be brought to God when the time of the festival came. This expands to a call always to give God our first and our best in time and talents too.

Jesus said I am the bread of life, all that you need. Trust me to provide all your needs: food for the body, mind and soul. We join with those first disciples as they say to Jesus – Give us this bread always. (John 6:34)