the harvest

John 4:34-36

Jesus said to them,
“My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me,
and to finish His work.
Do you not say, ‘There are still four months
and then the harvest’?

Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes
and look at the fields,
for they are already white for harvest!
And he who reaps receives wages,
and gathers fruit for eternal life,
that both he who sows and he who reaps
may rejoice together.”

Think about that. I’ve lived my whole life in a farming town; the farmers (of whom my dad is one) are constantly measuring the days, the weather, and all the other elements that play into when a field becomes ready for harvest. They plant at just the right time so that the whole field will ripen in the dry days of summer, when the grain can be harvested safely.

The spiritual field Jesus is talking about is a little bit different. It covers the entire world, which God “planted” thousands of years ago with two seeds named Adam and Eve. Uniquely, the whole field does not ripen at the same time; one stalk—one person—may be ready for harvest when the one beside it isn’t. But we, the laborers, need to be ready when our crop is.

Matthew 9:37, 38

Then He said to His disciples,
“The harvest truly is plentiful,
but the laborers are few.
Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest
to send out laborers into His harvest.”

If a crop is neglected at harvest time, it goes to total waste. Animals and birds pick through the grain heads; wind and rain scatter the chaff and leave the rest to rot back into the ground. I can’t imagine the Lord’s heartbreak when He sees His people ignore a ready field.

Harvest-ready fields are everywhere. I’ve always hoped to spend time “harvesting” in a foreign country where I’d feel truly needed, but in truth, the readiness of a field isn’t measured by how far it is from home. Sometimes the field that’s at its peak is the one you live in.