The Harvest

As a boy, my dad always kept a garden in our backyard and at my grandparents' house. I would always have to help with every phase of the garden from working the ground, to plowing, to planting, watering, and then harvesting. Now my favorite part in the whole process was watering because it took the least amount of effort and what kid doesn't like playing with the water hose. My least favorite part in the art of gardening was the harvesting. Don't get me wrong its exciting to get to the point where you can actually enjoy the fruits of your labor. But harvesting was hard work, and you had to have a keen sense for knowing what was ready and what wasn't. My dad plucked the easy stuff like the tomatoes and peppers. He left the joy of picking peas, beans, squash, blueberries, carrots, and potatoes to me. It was back-breaking, agonizing, tedious, hard work, but someone had to do it. In all the stages of a garden you would think that harvesting would be the one everyone would line up to do. Jesus states that there is a severe shortage of harvesters, but there was no shortage of planters or waterers. Planting is fun, watering is fun, but harvesting is hard selfless work. As Christian we are called to a very selfless lifestyle. It is a lifestyle of You and not I, Him and not me. In order to be a harvester you have to notice things that planters and waterers don't. You can't just go into a garden and pick peas prematurely (how do you like that alliteration?!). They have to be ready to pick. You have to be in tune with you garden (now I'm starting to sound like a hippie) You have to watch that garden which also means you have to keep it free from bugs and rodents who would try to destroy the crop and limit the harvest. Most of us tend to want the easiest jobs in the Kingdom. It would be great if the harvest was like the Jubilee that happens on the shores of Mobile Bay every year where people just walk up and gather oxygen deprived fish without much work. I would love to have someone walk up to me randomly at Walmart, fall on their knees, and beg to know Christ. Unfortunately the spiritual harvest rarely works like that. In order to be a harvester in God's kingdom I have got to get down to where His crops are, notice them, keep watch over them, and gently pull them into the Kingdom when they are ready.