Another harvest season is drawing to a close here in West Texas. While this year may not compare to the bumper crop that took place in 2010, I think everyone is grateful to have what we did in light of the brutal summers of the last two years. There is no doubt that our land is parched and dry to an extreme that many of us have never seen; and yet, when the harvest comes in at the end of the year, there is still a since of satisfaction and joy that another year’s work has been accomplished. Maybe things are not as great as they could have been, but it certainly could have been far worse. And there is always optimism for the year to come.
In thinking about the joy of harvest along with the Christmas season it brings to mind one of the most famous Christmas passages in our Bible. You probably have it memorized because it is sung every year in Handel’s Messiah, but the passage I am speaking about is from Isaiah 9:6: “For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”