I got my first job at 9 years old driving a tobacco harvester for Mr. Sonny. Child labor laws were a bit different back then, but it wasn’t a hard job. The machine moved at a snail’s pace, and all I had to do was hold the steering wheel and keep it from running over anything valuable.
There was a crew of older kids working on the harvester with me. They were busy as bees all day long. But I was bored. Every now and then I’d doze a little and the machine would swerve a bit. And I’d pop back awake to the sound of, “keep her straight!” or “quit napping up there!”
But that was my introduction to work, and my first experience with a harvest.
Most of us don’t know a lot about planting or harvesting these days. But in Jesus’ day everyone he encountered did. So, Jesus talked about harvest often.
Harvest is the payoff for the farmer. His hopes and his dreams and his money are all tied to it. If he doesn’t put in the work he can’t expect too much. But work alone can’t predict the harvest. Only God can.
Our Heavenly Father is the Lord of the Harvest. (Matthew 9:38) He owns every part of it. He creates the seeds, the hands that plant them, and the earth that covers them too. He sends the rains. He brings the growth. He shares the harvest with us because He is good – not because we are.
In our lives we harvest gift after gift from our gracious Creator. Everything we receive comes from him. (James 1:17)
Let’s start the month of November thanking Him for the harvest He provides.