In the 1960s the communist government of Romania allowed my Great-Aunt Margaret a visa to come to the US.  She arrived a few weeks before Christmas and stayed until early spring when she insisted on returning home for the potato planting season. This astonished me. My Great-Uncle John explained how important the potato crop was for survival. During the winter his family would line the living room with small shelves holding seed potatoes so they would sprout. That way they could get in an early crop and beat the other farmers to market in the summer.

The intricacies of agricultural life were beyond the comprehension of a city boy like me. I don’t think much about where my food comes from. For many people, however, the planting and harvesting cycle is a matter of life and death. We urbanites miss that in our church life.

In the old church calendar, the Sunday before Ascension Day was called Rogate, from the Latin word “to ask.” On the three days following Rogate, processions with litanies were held to bless the fields. For the most part rogation days are gone. I feel we still need a time for remembering our dependence on the people who do the back-breaking work of growing our food. Many of them are migrant workers who rarely earn enough to keep themselves out of poverty. Let’s ask God this week to bless those who grow our food. May we be grateful for their labor, and may we keep in mind those who are in need.

Read Psalm 65 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne