By PAWNEE ANNIE

There is no time more beautiful in Kansas than the time of harvest.
And since we are in the middle of the wheat harvest now, that beauty is evident. The fields that are ready for harvest are thick and lush with wheat, and those fields that are cut glow a golden shimmer.
Harvest is amazing!
It’s important that we all take the opportunity to watch this miracle unfold. The heads of wheat are thick, and abundant, and those heads have never looked better.
We received rain just in time…almost too late…and have been blessed with dry, hot, windy weather so that the wheat can be harvested at its peak.
Several evenings ago, Fred, our 3 ½ years old grandson, and I took a country drive.
Little “Egbert” was thrilled to see the combines in the field, and even more interested in the big trucks and other equipment. His daddy farms, so he was vociferously pointing out all the different kinds of machines, just “in case” we didn’t know what they were.
It’s unbelievable to me that city kids know little to nothing about this process.
Why would they?
The entire routine; planting seeds, taking care of the tender plants, spraying, and watching those seeds multiply and produce a beautiful crop is totally alien to many…maybe as many as the great majority of the population.
Watching the combines, observing the trucks and the weighing process, and realizing the cost of all of that specialized equipment is sobering. The city folks often think they are more sophisticated with their paltry little Rolls Royces and high rise offices, but they know nothing.
I want to encourage you to take a ride down some country roads, and take a young person with you, to share the process of harvesting that so many have not been able to witness.
It’s just plain beautiful.
Jesus spoke in parables and spoke often about the harvest; about seeds, and where they land…on rocks, some on fertile soil and so on. The Bible also tells us about God planting seeds that were a people and spreading them throughout the world to bring forth a harvest of believers. He speaks about there being tares (weeds) among the wheat, and how the tares look just like the wheat. He has much to say about seeds and harvest.
People who lived then understood his picture illustrations. Most people today do not have that natural, innate understanding. How can anyone understand the “seed producing-fruit-process” if they have never planted a seed, have never visited a farming community, and think that everything we eat comes from a truck or from a shelf in the grocery store?
Wheat.
Did you know that this grain is grown on more land area than any other commercial food? World trade in wheat is greater than for all other crops combined.
Wheat is the leading source of vegetable protein in human food, having a higher protein content than other major cereals, corn, or rice.
It is a staple food used to make flour, for leavened, flat, and steamed breads, biscuits, cookies, cakes, breakfast cereal, pasta, noodles, couscous, animal feed, and for fermentation to make beer, other alcoholic beverages, and biofuel.
Wow.
And to think … none of it would grow to be a beautiful bumper crop if the Lord of the Harvest didn’t provide the proper conditions for it to flourish.
We have had a dry winter, but many prayed to the Lord for rain, and He provided it. Just in time. And now He is providing a perfect weather situation so that the harvest can be gathered into the barns.
Let’s all be grateful today. It’s the least we can do.
“Woman’s View” is Judi Tabler’s reflection of her experiences and events. She is a wife, mother, writer, teacher, grandmother, and even a great grandmother.