Here are a few reflections I had before our recent performance at the Henderson Country Apple Festival.
I have to celebrate my home county of Henderson County NC, for always making the worship of the One true God to be a main part of our celebrate annual festival called “The Apple Festival”. It is more than appropriate that the Creator God whom the Hebrews blessed saying “Blessed be the Lord who brings form bread from the earth”, should be praised and celebrated during the Harvest season. Henderson County has done this for the 72 Years if this festival. I have always taken this for granted but no more. I am so thankful for this healthy and appropriate expression of thanksgiving sponsored by our local government. A festival for the pragmatist and the materialist is a total waste of everything. Thousands of people come from miles around to clog up our streets, eat fried food, and walk up and down a street. The most value that some people will see in a festival like this is the economic value. It keeps the economy flowing. To be sure, that is a good thing. But that is not why people come out to a festival. A festival like our Apple Festival at its best is a celebration of all good things in life. Food and games, people and art, and life out-of-the-ordinary is what makes a festival and life have its special appeal. Though we may not like certain human beings, it is still true that humans are attracted to each other and a festival like this proves it. We come and fill up our Main Street for one long weekend simply because life is good. And this can only be true because the God who created it is good. Science sometimes makes the lofty claim of “explaining things”. But all science can do is observe things. Science can tell me that water, soil, and sunlight, causes a seed to germinate and produce an Apple Tree, but it cannot tell me why. Science can say that humans are drawn to other humans because the survival instinct realizes that we need each other, but it can’t tell us why. Why does the world work the way it does? Why do humans do what they do? What in fact are we? The answer is that we are little and faulty images of a good and generous God who created a world that “brings forth bread” and all good things for us to enjoy. It is good and right to give thanks to Him at our festivals. I am extremely thankful that our county does.