Harvest
by Karen Pederson
I enjoy driving, especially to see my grandkids in Bismarck, ND and Naperville, Illinois. We’ve driven in all seasons but the spring when the grain is coming up turning everything green it’s gorgeous. Driving in the summer watching grain fields grow taller, then driving in late August into September and seeing the harvest develop across the states makes for an enjoyable ride. This year I was remembering harvest on our farm growing up, the urgency of getting the crop in was important and everyone pitched in. Getting the equipment ready, checking to see if the grain was dry enough to harvest today! Then all hands-on deck to start combining, everyone had an important job. I remember helping get the food ready when I was younger, taking meals out to the field so nothing stopped, just time to eat. When I was older, I even got called out of school early to drive the truck alongside the combine, we unloaded on the run then I traded my truck off to grandpa to unload into the grain bin. It’s a rush that only farmers know but that’s the yearly income coming off the field into the trucks and grain bins. Getting the crop in before the weather changed was an urgency of utmost concern during grain harvest.
Another urgency came to mind when I read these verses about another harvest that resembles grain harvest. Revelations 14:15 “Swing your sickle and reap because it’s harvest time. The time to reap has come for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” We are God’s harvest workers and all of us have a part in being in the harvest of souls, before it’s too late, before people meet their Redeemer unprepared for eternity. Jeremiah 8:20 says “The harvest is past; the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” We don’t know God’s timeline, but the urgency is there because people’s lives are ending, and they are not saved!
As I drove towards home, some fields were harvested. The closer I got towards home; the grain was ready to harvest. The fields were as Jesus described in John 4: 34-35, “four more months and then the harvest? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe or white for harvest.” The next day, that field was harvested. Like the farmer, God knows the time of the harvest.
When is God’s harvest coming? Is He slow or patient? 2 Peter 3: 9 tells us “The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness but is patient toward you, not wishing that any would perish, but that all should reach repentance.”
The harvest is still going on; after the grain harvest there are potatoes and beets, then the corn and sunflowers are still to be harvested. That’s the real picture I have of God’s patience or of His slowness; a process that takes time. Like Jesus who met with the woman at the well, He knew she’d be at the well and was ready to hear and respond to His call that day. People around the world, in unlikely places and in risky places are coming to salvation when they hear the Word, they are responding! I have an important part in the harvest of souls, like my grandma and mom preparing and providing the needed food, like I was called home from school to help dad and grandpa with harvest. Some GO, some Give, but ALL Pray. “Pray the Lord of Harvest to send forth workers into His harvest field.” Matthew 9:35
Lord, open my eyes to see Your harvest fields close around me and around the world. Father, challenge me to give willingly to provide for the workers around the world. Jesus, give my heart an urgency to pray for workers in Your harvest field.