Last week was supposed to be the letter "G." I muddled for awhile, but couldn't come up with anything fresh for the letter G, and besides, I was a bit overwhelmed with something and failed to connect the source with the letter G.

My grandson with last weekend's pumpkin harvest.

Fortunately for me, G (garden) runs right into the letter H... Harvest.

When he knew we were moving back to the ranch, my dad prepped his 1/2 acre garden plot for our arrival. So far this summer, most of the labor has been his: planting and watering. I've done a couple days of weeding, and picked a frightening quantity of zucchini and summer squash, and green beans. But the real HARVEST has just kicked in during the last two weeks, with pumpkins, corn, onions, carrots, more zucchini, and more summer squash, all ripe and ready to pick and process. Tomatoes are next, along with peppers and tomatillos and cucumbers.

This was the first batch of green beans. The basket has been refilled 3-4 times since.

Meanwhile, I've been occupied with this....

This is probably the 5th or 6th batch of squash this summer. Yes, that's a wheelbarrow-full.

Today's crop of corn and pumpkins.

Onions, laid out in the greenhouse to dry.

Some of today's carrot harvest.

When I think about all the people in the world, and in our own country (shame on us) who are hungry, I am humbled. I'm humbled by the bounty we've been blessed with.

At the same time, I'm ashamed of the bounty that goes to waste: the apple trees, their branches laden with fruit that will never be picked I pass on the 20 minute drive to my son's school, and the chokecherries that went to waste this summer, and the asparagus that was never picked on the the sides of the road, and the amaranth (aka pigweed) we'll never harvest because the process is too difficult and time consuming and it's easier to buy a bag of flour at the market.

Harvest carries a double connotation for Christians. There's a harvest of souls coming into the kingdom of God. Will they come the same way the natural harvest comes? Seemingly all at once? Probably. Will we, the harvesters, be prepared to receive them? That's a question that remains to be answered. I hope so.