Harvest Time

The harvest is past, the summer is ended 

(Jeremiah 8:20)

Harvest time.  What a satisfying season of the year.  Planting and tilling, watering and weeding have ended. The sun no longer relentlessly beats down and hot winds have ceased sucking away vital moisture.  Fruits of our labor hang ripe and ready on the vine, or set in colorful rows on pantry shelves.

Gardening, with its plowing and sowing, weeding and hoeing presents a portrait of life.  However, in life we may see little or no fruit yielding from our efforts.  At such times, it is helpful to remember that for us, harvest season has not yet come.

God will not forget the things we do on His behalf.  A time is coming when our efforts will cease as the Master returns to take His laborers home:

Behold, I am coming quickly, and my reward is with Me, 

to give to every one according to his work.

 (Revelation 22:12).

Jesus often used stories about things here on Earth to illustrate heavenly truths.  Parables, the Bible calls them.  One such example is found in the 8th chapter of Luke where Jesus described a sower and the type of crop that grew from his labors.

He explained that the seed represented the Word of God, and the soil onto which it fell represented the hearts of the people who heard it. There were different types of soil. Seeds that fell on fertile ground, took root and grew, and produced a bountiful crop.  Others, encountering non receptive soil, produced nothing.  The seed and the sower were the same; the difference was the condition of the soil.

The seed, and the fields into which He sends us, belong to God.  We are not responsible for the germination process or the production of fruit.  Our assignment is to faithfully sow His seed of truth wherever He assigns us:

He who sows righteousness will have a sure reward…

and he who waters will also be watered himself 

(Proverbs 11:18, 25)

Lord, my job is just to sow the seed You’ve given me to sow.   
The harvest I may never see while living here below.
So one by one I’ll plant the seed wherever I'm assigned; 
not looking back where I have sown expecting there to find
one evidence that there is change to show that I was there;
but move ahead with confidence and sow Your seed with care.  
The life, the growth, the harvest I must leave in Your great hand;
others You may later send to finish out Your plan.
Harvest from the seeds I’ve sown perhaps one day I’ll see
when, by Your side, I view the whole in true humility.
                                                                                       Glenda Collins Inman