The fruits are ripe. The needs are real.

 All things bright and beautiful / All creatures great and small
All things wise and wonderful / 'Twas God that made them all

Each little flower that opens / Each little bird that sings
God made their glowing colors / And made their tiny wings

The purple headed mountains / The rivers running by
The sunset and the morning / That brightens up the sky

The cold wind in the winter / The pleasant summer sun
The ripe fruits in the garden / God made them every one
—“All Things Bright and Beautiful” by Cecil Alexander

When fall rolls around, I think of crisp apples. And just the other day, a friend of mine whose family runs an apple farm brought me some small yellow apples with bright pink flesh. They tasted simultaneously tart and sweet. Amazing! Those apples made me think of this beautiful hymn by Cecil Alexander: “All things bright and beautiful / All creatures great and small. . . .  The ripe fruits in the garden / God made them every one.”  
    
We are surrounded by wondrous blessings. We are surrounded by a ready harvest of joy. . . . And yet, the trauma we’ve all experienced over the past couple of years often clouds over that harvest of joy for many of us. Recently, our Northern California-Nevada Regional Minister, LaTaunya Bynum wrote, “We need to figure out what it means to be a spiritual trauma center for our communities. We need to reintroduce ourselves as a place that can tend to the wounds this pandemic opened. Each church needs to consider how it might evangelize to its neighbors (and some of its own members) almost as if launching a new church in 2021.”  
    
So, friends, how might we tend to these wounds? How might we nourish the spiritual trauma so many people are feeling with a deep harvest of joy, mercy, grace, understanding, and belonging? The fruits are ripe. The needs are real. Are you ready to join me in this important, life-giving work?

See you in church,
Christy