Bringing in the sheaves

I am helping with harvest at the moment, driving the 'chaser bin'.
They aren't any sheaves brought in anymore cause the harvesting machine (header) does all the threshing and winnowing as well as chopping the chaff and broadcasting it so it will rot down most efficiently.
The community of people that used to have to come together for the purpose of harvesting and processing grain have been replaced by a handful of people not face to face (as much) but machine to machine!

God told Adam to take dominion over the fields and that's what Adams sons have done, albeit in man glorying way. In using machines we are able to increase food production to the point that there should be enough to feed all the people on the earth. So we have a tool (like a shovel) that will help us to do what God wants done. He wants everyone who works to have enough food to eat. Of course westerners eat the lions share but that's another guilt trip.
The machines are great but not greater than the men who drive them, or even the grain they are harvesting.
I mean, headers are great but you can't grow or eat one!
Machines are built to serve us but ironically they make us their slaves, We must spend vast portions of our allotted time on earth paying for them and fixing them.

I miss the community that would have cut and bound the sheaves, transported by hand or ox cart to the threshing floor, threshing, winnowing then ensilment and grinding flour. All together face to face, shoulder to shoulder. And the harvest festivals would have been great. What better time to celebrate after the work is all done and the grain is safely stored in the store house for the coming year who wouldn't want to kick back?
And farmers do this but mostly in a personal way, by taking a holiday or buying big ticket items after the annul  paycheck comes in. The church I grew up in had harvest festival where folk would bring things they had grown in and displaying them in the front of the church. It was beautiful seeing all the fruit of the earth gathered in, but then time marched on and people have stopped growing stuff at home in favour of dependence on the almighty Woollies/Coles industrial complex. How sad that we would let ourselves be sold into slavery for the sake of seeking ease and convenience. Isn't that what the Israelite's wanted to do in the wilderness after presently escaping 400 yrs of slavery in Egypt. Go back to the fleshpots!

Whats my point. Manual labor is good. It stops you from getting fat and brings us together with our brothers and sisters who pitch in and share the burden. The work is soon forgotten as we talk, sing and strengthen one another as well as sought out any discord. Let us not be bewitched/obsessed by the things we have made so that we can't remember the things God has made are far greater including our fellow man.

Jesus taught all of his lessons by referring to examples seen in  everyday life for the people of the time, harvesting grain was just one, birds, lilies of the field. I only just the other day appreciated fully that in using these examples he wasn't referring to things he had simply observed but rather he was their very creator he designed them, built them, and displayed them in all their splendor for our pleasure and use. Then He uses them to teach us,who are also the work of his hands. Let us not miss the beauty of the things he has made. That we might learn of Him and know Him more.