Harvest Workers
HOW well I remember harvesting on the farm where I grew up. There was a crispness in the air and a crispness in the way we went about making ready the harvesting equipment. There would be no squandering these crops!Christ Jesus used the harvest as an image for the spiritual work we have to do. John's Gospel records that he said, "Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. And in Luke's Gospel we read his words "The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. I sometimes think of this harvest as God's Word so taking hold of someone's affections that he or she drops ungodlike ways of thinking and living and accepts His way. So many of earth's people are looking for something better than materialism that we can begin to see that the fields "are white already to harvest. Whether they know it or not, people are hungry for spirituality! But what about the workers? Have you ever thought of yourself as a laborer in the harvest? That is, have you ever felt ready to help others learn more about the true God and their own eternal relationship to Him? It might be tempting to think we are unqualified for work in this harvest. But, as we glimpse even a little of our own precious relationship to God and allow that to convert our own heart, we are qualified to share what we've learned with others. It doesn't take years or intellectual achievements, but a willing heart made ready to hear and understand God. Many want to know more of the Bible, of God and of man as God's child. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, says in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: "Millions of unprejudiced minds--simple seekers for Truth, weary wanderers, athirst in the desert--are waiting and watching for rest and drink. Give them a cup of cold water in Christ's name, and never fear the consequences. This "cup of cold water isn't a long speech on morality or theology--something most of us aren't prepared to give in any case. It's something closer to the simple, clear explanation of the truth that Christ Jesus gave his listeners. Remember, for example, the woman Jesus asked for water at her community's well? Jesus discerned her situation and her real need. His simple explanation of the permanent joy of finding one's life in God was couched in terms she could understand from her own life. He said to her: "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. Life on a material basis, separated from God, is a misapprehension of real Life. The reality is that all existence is included in God. We don't have to subscribe to the misconception that man's life is fragile and dependent solely on biological forces. In reality, as the healings of Jesus show, man's life is the image of God's being. Man is spiritual and eternal because God, divine Principle, is man's source. "Divine Principle is the Life of man. Man's happiness is not, therefore, at the disposal o f physical sense, writes Mrs. Eddy in Science and Health. These truths can be proved every day in our own lives. When we understand them, even in a degree, they improve our health, our work, our relations with others. And as we live these truths, we understand them more clearly day by day, and we are better able to explain them to others. This gives us a sharp tool for the harvest before us. As we allow our Father's love for all His children to control our hearts, we'll find ourselves willing workers.
