“…I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.” John 4:25 NIV
Living in a small farming community, my husband and I have a front row seat to the fields across the street, and yes, the fields are ripe for harvest.
Staged in front of our house, this outdoor theater puts on a silent show all summer long for the town’s enjoyment.
OPENING DAY begins in the early spring of May when the farmers cultivate and prepare their acres to receive its season of seeds followed by the summer months of rain and sunshine to foster its growth.
The show ends during the FINAL CURTAIN fall days of September when these crops now fully grown, standing gloriously tall and at attention, wait their turn for harvesting.
While there are no speaking parts in this show, if a “picture paints a thousand words” during the spectacular script of waiting and watching these small seeds nurtured to towering heights, the script writer deserves our affection for his creative attention to detail.
“The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Luke 10:2 NIV
During this fall season of gathering, the Lord reminds us of the “acres of souls” waiting in the “fields of decision”, whose hearts are ripe and ready to say “yes” to Jesus, yet wait for those willing workers to meet them in the fields with a great hope and new life in Christ.
Souls that have been bruised, battered, rejected and discarded to the curb of despair.
Souls lost in search of someone to show them the way.
Souls who are ready to say “yes” to Jesus, a “fields of souls” ready for harvest, yet workers to reach them are few.
“…I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.” John 4:25 NIV
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” Isaiah 6:8 NIV
Oh, that our ears be sensitive to hear the voice of the Lord calling for workers,
“Whom shall I send?”
Oh, that our hearts be prepared and ready to drop everything on a moment’s notice.
“And who will go for us?”
Oh, that we ever be drawn and willing to head for the fields towards the desperate in need of hope and a new beginning.
May we be compelled with our answer,
And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
The fields of hurting people are everywhere.
A co-worker in the cubicle next to yours.
A smiling person sitting beside you at church.
That troublemaker living next door in your neighborhood.
Someone waiting behind you in the check-out line of the grocery store.
A family member.
That spouse sleeping beside you at night.
The fields are ripe with hurting people everywhere whose heart is ready to receive a new hope in Christ.
But we must open our eyes and look at the fields to see them.
Our hearts must be ready to heed the voice of the Lord when he calls,
“Whom shall I send?”
We must be willing to be inconvenienced, leave our comfort zone, swallow our pride and insecurities, trust in our abilities, consider someone more important than ourselves with a life-changing reply to the call,
“Here am I Lord, send me.”