Raise the Song of Harvest Home

 

 

Come, ye thankful people, come;
Raise the song of harvest home.
All is safely gathered in
Ere the winter storms begin.
God, our Maker, doth provide
For our wants to be supplied.
Come to God's own temple, come;
Raise the song of harvest home.

All the world is God's own field,
Fruit unto his praise to yield,
Wheat and tares together sown,
Unto joy or sorrow grown.
First the blade, and then the ear,
Then the full corn shall appear.
Lord of harvest, grant that we
Wholesome grain and pure may be.

For the Lord our God shall come,
and shall take the harvest home;
from the field shall in that day
all offenses purge away,
giving angels charge at last
in the fire the tares to cast;
but the fruitful ears to store
in the garner evermore.

Even so, Lord, quickly come,
bring thy final harvest home;
gather thou thy people in,
free from sorrow, free from sin,
there, forever purified,
in thy presence to abide;
come, with all thine angels, come,
raise the glorious harvest home.

We sing this hymn at Thanksgiving, but in our hymnal there are only the first two verses. I discovered that there are two more verses. I like their reference to the Parable of the Wheat and Tares. And as verse four says, I find myself saying more and more these days“Even so Lord, quickly come.”

Last Friday Pres. Russell M. Nelson requested that people flood social media with messages of thanks. I heeded his request and for seven days I pondered and then posted something I was thankful for on my facebook page – my family, my home, this nation, music, books, my Savior. Pres. Nelson assured us that “counting our blessings is far better than recounting our problems. No matter our situation, showing gratitude for our privileges is a unique, fast-acting, and long-lasting spiritual prescription.” He was right. As I sat and thought about what I would give thanks for each day, I had to sort through many, many things before settling on just one. I quickly became aware of and more thankful for all the wonders that fill my life. These were my posts:

 

We celebrated Thanksgiving on Thursday. Stacey had to work that day, so Hannah and I spent most of the day in the kitchen preparing food for the feast. We were assigned the sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and zesty carrots. The Shilligs provided the rest – the turkey, stuffing, rolls, peas, jell-o salad, and pie and candy for dessert. Our feast began after Stacey got home at 5:30. It was all so delicious. 

Grinding the cranberry sauce.

The finished cranberry sauce.

Hannah making sweet potato casserole.

Zesty carrots and sweet potato casserole finished.

 

The two primary sources we have describing the first Thanksgiving in 1621 come from Edward Winslow and William Bradford. Both of their accounts list venison, corn, porridge, and wildfowl as foods at the feast. William Bradford mentions that wild turkeys were plentiful, so despite all the things you might have read that say otherwise, they did eat turkey, but it wasn’t the centerpiece of the meal, that would have been venison from the five deer the Native guests brought. The wildfowl mentioned was most likely duck, goose, and possibly passenger pigeons. Food historians say they probably also ate clams, lobsters, mussels, and eels. They would have gathered chestnuts, walnuts, and beechnuts from the forest. They would have eaten pumpkins and other squash, but not in the form of pie. So most of what we ate on Thursday as our traditional Thanksgiving feast was not eaten in 1621. My apologies to the Pilgrims, but I prefer our menu to theirs.

 

Our feast.

Thursday was also Hannah’s birthday. She turned 25, which does not seem possible to me. After our feast, we sang happy birthday to her and she opened gifts.

The birthday girl.

Now Thanksgiving is over and we are headed full steam into Christmas. As is our tradition, we began turning on our outdoor Christmas lights on Friday. Now the range of Christmas music we’ll play in our house will expand as our celebration is officially underway. We decorated the inside of the house on Friday night. All the garlands, knick-knacks, and nativities are back in their usual holiday places. We won’t get our tree until later in December. We’ve already started watching Christmas movies. The female occupants of the house love watching Hallmark Christmas movies. For years I resisted and complained about it. I mocked the movies for their predictable plots, sappy dialog, and terrible acting. This year I have capitulated. We watch one almost every evening. There seems to be an endless supply of them. Or maybe it’s just the same five over and over – it’s hard to tell. I watch them, but I still mock them as I watch. They are pleasant in a mind-numbing way.

Outdoor lights on.

Indoor lights on.

Tomorrow is the first day of deer season. When we first moved here, I was a bit appalled at deer season. Yes, I was one of those soft-hearted people that say, “They are such beautiful animals, how can you kill them?” But after a year or two of growing a garden and planting an orchard, my attitude changed. Now I find myself saying, “I hope the hunters get the deer that are destroying my plants and fruit trees.” Deer are abundant here, a fact attested to by the road kill carcasses we see everywhere. The only thing I don’t like about deer season is not being able to walk in the woods for the next few weeks. But I don’t often do that at this time of year anyway. School is closed for opening day. We’re wondering if it will open again on Tuesday because of a local increase in Covid cases. They’ll let us know tomorrow.

The weather has been rather dismal – cold, wet, and dark – typical for November. But November is about to end and December always seems better, even if it continues to be cold, wet, and dark. The approach of Christmas with its lights, decorations, and excitement makes it feel brighter. Finally this morning the sun rose in a clear sky. We’re having a sunny, but not warm, Sabbath. There was a crust of ice on the beaver pond when I went on my morning walk.

This Sabbath morning.

Ice on the beaver pond.

Today is the first Sunday of Advent. Advent is not a tradition we practice as a church, although I know members who observe it as a family tradition. We don’t at our house, but I’ve always liked the tradition – the wreath and candles, the carols and the idea of preparing for the coming of the Savior. This is the Sunday when we start singing Christmas carols at church, although because of the restrictions imposed on us, we aren’t allowed to sing, which seems especially sad. We were not able to go to church today. We had church at home, something we are used to doing now. And we sang our hymns and carols out loud! I chose the music. For our opening hymn we sang all the verses of Come, Ye Thankful People, as above. Our sacrament hymn was While of These Emblems We Partake. Then at the end, after our lesson, we sang two carols not found in our hymnal but sung in other congregations on the first day of Advent – O Come, O Come Immanuel and Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus. I chose them because they express the longing for the Savior to come and save the world, which applies to his birth in Bethlehem two thousand and twenty years ago and now as we anticipate His Second Coming.

As I was selecting the music for our home services, I watched several YouTube videos of choirs performing those carols. One I especially loved was of a service at Kings College, Cambridge. As I watched and listened to the congregation and the wonderful choir sing in that magnificent chapel, it made me sad and even angry to think that this year we will be prevented from gathering and singing and worshiping like that. It casts this whole pandemic and all its confusion, the machinations, and the restrictions of our liberty in an evil light. I pray that we will be delivered from it all – an appropriate prayer for the first Sunday of Advent.

O come, O King of nations, bind
in one the hearts of all mankind.
Bid all our sad divisions cease
and be yourself our King of Peace.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel
shall come to you, O Israel.