White for Harvest

My son has been watching everyday for the harvester to come gather in the wheat that has been growing next to our house. He got to ride on the seeder when they planted the field, and he has been watching it grow all summer.

Today, the field was white as the sun shone on it. He heard the hum of the harvester as it crested the hill, and he ran to my room shouting, “It’s here! It’s time!”

We went out together, hand in hand, to watch the machine cut the stalks and funnel the grain into the truck. Dust rose in the air as the chaff filtered out of the back of the harvester.

The Prophet Amos had been a shepherd before the word of the Lord came to him, but he soon learned all about the harvest.

“Behold, the days are coming when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed…I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them…” God said through Amos. 

The growth would have to happen quickly if the plowman could be overtaken by the reaper. 

It seems like only yesterday that my son was riding the seeder, and today, he is cheering the harvest.

When Jesus meets and changes a person, the growth often happens quickly. The transformation is almost unbelievable. 

When He met the woman at the well, Jesus thought about Amos’s words. 

He told His disciples, “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 the sower and reaper may rejoice together.”

Sometimes, in sowing God’s word, discouragement creeps in. As I shared the Gospel this week with a group of children, all my Romans road verses collided, and none of the children were listening anyway. Sometimes, I wonder how much seed must be planted before anything even starts to grow. 

It feels like I’ve gone through the whole seed hopper, sometimes, and nothing is growing.

However, solace comes in the form of those who are sowing beside me. We walk, side by side, planting the seed of God’s word. It’s then that I remember that these fellow-sowers were once the good soil where seed was planted. They have grown, matured, and now, they are sowers too.

The planter and the harvester really do run together in God’s economy. We rejoice together every time we gather to worship Jesus, who gives the growth.

One day, Jesus will come back, and one of them will run in, yelling with excitement: “It’s here! It’s time!” and the Great Harvest will begin. The Lord Jesus will come to take us all to be in the place He has prepared for us, and the labor will all be worth it.