Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.” -John 4:34-38
WE are all the beneficiaries of an inheritance. Though many of us are not living as Pip in Great Expectations, being financed through the generosity of a mysterious benefactor to become a gentleman, we each find ourselves in debt to those who have come before us when we consider the discoveries, infrastructure, and opportunities of which we take advantage every day and have done no labor to achieve. This echoes the commonly used illustration of “standing on the shoulders of giants” which makes the point in a vivid and humbling way, yet it is more true than the spirit of the age would allow us to think.
At Providence, we highly value this principle in a number of ways. One of the primary ways in which we regard those who came before us is in our prizing of the great books and the educational tradition of the liberal arts. We realize that the scope of our own experience is quite limited and that we require the benefit of thinkers and teachers who have come before us to impart wisdom to the next generation. Though many today scoff at the ancient and medieval thinkers prized in Western culture, we enter into their work reverently, yet with a realistic view. Though these men were imperfect, as we are, we can still see the way in which the Lord sovereignly used such men to shape the culture we live in today and contribute to a discussion that is centuries-old, a conversation in which we hope our students can participate.
In addition to this overarching principle of our school’s approach to 
education, we also take a day each year to, in a more tangible way, practice the virtue of thanking those who have sown what we get to harvest today. At our annual Harvest Festival, we invite parents, grandparents, pastors, veterans, and other public servants who have offered their lives and means as a sacrifice on the behalf of this generation of students. It is because of the seeds sown by the generation before us that we get to reap the plentiful harvest we do at Providence, so we give our thanks by sharing the fruit of our educational labors in song, recitation, and displays of schoolwork. It is our desire that those who came before us see our thankfulness for their labor as we enter into their labor, and instill in our students that same virtue of regarding the preceding generation with reverence and thanksgiving.
It is a great privilege to enter into the labor of those who have gone before us and continue building on the foundation of what has been laid in generations past. Others have sown and we reap, and it is our hope that generations to come will get to reap from what we are sowing today. May the Lord add his blessing both in our effort to equip students for lives of of wisdom, virtue, and eloquence to the glory of God. Furthermore, as the life of the school continues, may God raise up a school that can serve students for years to come in that aim, that sower and reaper may rejoice together for many generations.
Mr. Chris Buckles has served at Providence since August 2013. He teaches upper school logic, geometry, and rhetoric and also serves as Dean of Academics and director of Shakespeare in a Week. He and his wife, Lindsey, moved to Saint Louis in 2012 and worship at Trailhead Church. They have a toddler son, Scott, and infant daughter, Emilia.
