I’m from the Midwest and in the Midwest, people farm.  Suffice it to say, farming is a lot of work.  You have to clear the ground, prepare the soil, choose the exact time to plant, keep that plants watered, remove the weeds, protect it from varmints and hailstorms, and then wait and wait and wait until it is ready for harvest.

Then when it is ready to be harvested, it needs to be harvested now!  That means going to bed at midnight and being in the field at 4 a.m for several weeks.  It’s no small task.But then there are the fields.  Some people need mountains and hills for beauty.  But I find a beautiful wheat field against a bright blue sky just as inspiring, if not moving.  (The picture above is at my aunt’s farm).

But can you imagine after laboring endlessly for a lush and beautiful crop, and then not being able to find any farmhands to help you harvest?  Or worse yet, there were farmhands available but they wanted to be involved doing their own thing, watching TV, playing games, etc…?  How much more could they do if they just worked hard at the harvest?  The payoff would be incredible!  And yet, Jesus said, “the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few!”  What a travesty to have lush wheat and corn as far as the eye could see, but only 1 or 2 people working the fields.  Aghhh!

Interestingly when Jesus gives this picture of the Father’s heart to the disciples, he doesn’t berate them for not working hard enough.  Instead he instructs them, “pray to the Lord of the Harvest.”  Ask him to “send out more workers into the harvest field.”  It was only after he instructed them to pray that he sent them on their first training mission.  Oh that we all would be workers in the harvest fields, and that instead of grumbling towards others for not pulling their weight, we would ask the ‘Lord of the Harvest.’  May He receive the reward of His labors.