This wonderful chapter of Deuteronomy speaks to us on this Thanksgiving Day of the forms for the presentation of the abundance of a good harvest. The verses suggest that only those who are in communion with the giver can present the gift with a clean heart. It was the custom at the time of the telling of this story that each year, a basket containing firstfruits of the soil was to be brought to the central sanctuary and presented to God.

The Bible tells us that firstfruits for the people described in Deuteronomy were crops such as barley, grapes, wheat, figs, pomegranates, olives, and dates. The people were to take a basket of these firstfruits to the place they worshiped and present them to the priest.

In today's world, for those of us who are here today, our firstfruits do not come fro…