What the sunshine on Leith proclaims

Here's my October article:

Photo by Linda https://occasionalscotland.blogspot.com/2013/12/sunshine-on-leith.html

Traditionally, harvest festivals are celebrated around September or October, although different crops are harvested at different times of the year.   And in a year like the one we've had, some harvests came early and some barely came at all.  Whatever time of year is actually harvest time, our harvest festivals give us the chance to think about where our food comes from and the people that produce our food, and also the beauty of the natural world.

I started thinking about harvest earlier this year, surprisingly whilst writing the June article about football!   Writing of football chants I mentioned the song “Sunshine on Leith” by The Proclaimers, and of course I had to listen to it a few times (as I'm also doing now!)  The song is about heartbreak and finding love again and nothing really to do with harvest.   However, it contains the lyrics “While the Chief puts sunshine on Leith / I'll thank Him for His work / And your birth, and my birth.”

The Proclaimers, Charlie and Craig Reid, acknowledge their Christian roots and so the reference to 'the Chief' is a reference to God and his work includes his creation, in particular human life and the sunshine on Leith.  The reason it made me think of harvest is that the song expresses gratitude to the Chief for his works, and thanking God for his creation is an important part of what we do in our harvest festivals.

We thank God for the world he has made and for all his love and care expressed in the world, and what a world that is!  Because God doesn't just provide us with a place to exist in – he has made it beautiful as well.  Mountains, oceans, forests and deserts are not necessary for our existence, but God has given them to us to delight in.   Indeed the rest of the universe is not necessary for our survival, but it shows God's abundant love for us.  What's more, he could have designed us to be able to survive on one plant and water, but instead he gives us a huge variety of things to eat and drink which doesn't just provide our bodies with necessary nutrition - it tastes good too!

The pinnacle of his creation is humanity, made in his image and likeness (Genesis 1:27), and turning a 'good' world into a 'very good' world (compare what God 'sees' at the end of the sixth day [Genesis 1:31] with all the other days.)  We can celebrate all our complexity, and especially our capacity for love.  However, as we also acknowledge in our harvest festivals, our sinfulness leads us to misuse all of creation, including each other.  But the abundant love of God is shown not just in creation but in Jesus dying so we can be forgiven (Romans 5:8).

So while God continues to put sunshine (and all weathers) on his creation, whilst he sustains it by his powerful word (Hebrews 1:3), let it remind us to thank him for all his works, including you and me.