We have a kind of rule that we use when I take the kids trick-or-treating on Halloween. It’s a pretty simple one. You are free to knock on the door of any house with its lights on, unless there is a sign saying they are not giving out candy. This eliminates some potentially awkward situations. If the lights are not on, keep moving. If the house happens to be decorated for Halloween then this is almost a sure thing for candy. I say “almost” because it is possible that the candy has run out, or (what is more likely) the residents are themselves out with their kids trick-or-treating. Some people can get really creative with their decorations. I enjoy seeing what each neighborhood does, as long as it doesn’t get too scary.
Halloween decorating is a big market, and the ones that go all out usually start at the beginning of October. Putting up Halloween decorations is like a sign to the people around you that Summer is officially over and Autumn has come. Christmas decorating is even bigger around town. Those that decorate their houses for Christmas will often start the first week of November.
But aren’t we forgetting about a major holiday (at least in the US)? What about Thanksgiving? How many people decorate for that? The answer is not nearly as many as for the other two. I think part of the problem here is that Thanksgiving decorations are just not marketed to us. Stores have started to decorate for Christmas by early November, and the suggestion is that we should too. Another issue is the lack of variety in decorations. If you decorate for Halloween and Christmas you have a lot of options. But Thanksgiving? Not so much. I have seen uncarved pumpkins, bales of hay, and some nice looking scarecrows out, but that is about it. When people talk about decorating for Thanksgiving what they really mean in inside the house, and even then the focus is largely on the kitchen or dining room. You might see kids’ crafts of a turkey, or a fall-themed table runner for the dinner table. Maybe there are some autumn flowers or Indian corn.
But there is another Thanksgiving decoration out there, one that you may have forgotten. And if so that is a shame, because it is a really nice option for the Autumn-decorated home. Ladies and gentlemen, I submit to you (drumroll please)…
The Cornucopia.
You have seen these I am sure. The word tells you what it is, if you know Latin. “Cornu” means horn, and “Copia” means abundance. It got its origins in Greek mythology. The story goes that baby Zeus broke off a horn of his caretaker (who happened to be a goat), and the horn began to exude a constant supply of food. Romans adopted the custom after the Greeks, and later the cornucopia was used in harvest festivals across Europe. It probably made its way to America due to it being folded into Christian customs as a symbol of the harvest and in church decorations. The cornucopia stands for prosperity, abundance, and wealth.
But there is something else that the cornucopia stands for that I think gets missed this holiday season. A bountiful harvest is something that does not just happen. People have to work hard for it. Farming, for example, is an incredibly difficult profession. In 2019, agricultural work was twice as deadly as law enforcement, according the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The industry is one of the few that endangers not only the principle worker but the whole family as well, since those that live on a farm often share in the work load. Raising crops is not easy.
So why do some people do it? Why farm the land when there are far easier occupations? One reason may be a generational one. Farming may just be “in the blood,” so to speak. But I think there must be something else to go with it, something that every gardener must also experience. When the harvest comes, you have a feeling that you earned this. It was your hard work that put the food on the table. That cornucopia is filled because you made it happen.
Faith can be like that too.
Hear this from Second Timothy in regards to the rewards for living God’s Way:
2 Timothy 4:1-8
4 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
6 For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
If faith is so hard, then why do it? I think the metaphor of the farmer hold true here. A job well done in the faith means a cornucopia of love. If you invite someone to your table and share in your bounty, you bless them with your labor. But you also bless yourself. You see the outcome of the work you have done, and the person sitting with you sees it too. Maybe that person will decide to work hard as well, so they can decide to share in their harvest with others too. And so it goes, each person along the way impacted by the work you have done.
Do yourself a favor this season. Go get a cornucopia and put it on your table. Let it remind you of the faith you have, and the bounty it can create.
God Bless