The Day of Harvest

    

Matt 9:37-38

 

37 Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;

38 Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.

KJV

Truth is, I am a farm  girl.  I grew up spending my summers in the pea patch and creaming and putting up corn.  I did not know until I was a grown, married woman that they sell tomatoes in cans at the grocery store, and frozen peas as well!  I have a lot of good memories  of sitting down to meals of food that was grown totally on our farm- peas, corn, zucchini, egg plant, tomatoes, even eating pork and beef that we had fed and butchered.  Looking back now, I did not know how good we had it.  But I also recall how much back-breaking work was involved.

To this day, it grieves me when I drive by a field where the crop is left to waste in a field.  It seems like such a colossal mismanagement of time and expense to put the crop in the ground, only to leave it for deer and pests to eat it.  Why toil to plow up the ground, plant, water and fertilize the seed, if you are not going to eat the harvest?  Why bake in the sun for hours hoeing, if you are going to let it wither in the late summer heat?

If we could just open our spiritual eyes, we would see so many fields lying waste all around us.  But the waste is not corn or beans.  No, more tragically, it is human souls.  A priceless commodity that can NEVER be replaced.  We have to be aware of the seeds of witness that we plant.  We have to be careful to water those seeds with our prayers and tears.  We have to tend the tender shoots of belief that we see sprouting in others.  But greatest of all, when a person reaches a place of full maturity, where they are ripe to be born into the Kingdom, we must not fail to give them the invitation. 

Pray!  Pray that God shows you your  harvest.  Pray that you will be a faithful farmer of the crop. And in addition to all of that, pray the Lord will raise up other harvesters  who will see the need and reap a crop of human souls!

 

Oh, God, help  me!  Help me to be faithful to tend the fields you have given me. Help me to have the words that I need to say to bring forth a harvest. Help me to be found faithful at your return.  In Jesus' Name.  Amen.