The Beauty of the Harvest

Today we will wrap up this series of preparing for the harvest. We are meeting together on Sunday for the first time in 10 weeks. It just so happens to be Pentecost on that day, which if you remember, is the day set aside to give thanks to God for the harvest. I am praying that God does great things in our midst. I am praying for a harvest of souls. I am praying that God adds to His number those who will love Him and follow Him. And I pray that you will be a part of it! So to wrap all of this up I want to dwell on the beauty of the coming harvest.

I have become more aware of the beauty of produce in the last few weeks. I don’t know why, but I am drawn to the vibrant colors and unique textures. I am not necessarily a picky eater, but there are a few things I don’t love. Raw onions are one of them. But I decided to give it a whirl the other day. I made a beautiful Greek salad and I included a raw red onion. As I was chopping it up I was caught off guard by its beauty. Maybe it’s because I don’t recall ever chopping one up before. Something about its beauty made me want to eat it. And honestly it hasn’t been a bad experience!

When we think about an eternal harvest we should consider just how diverse and beautiful it will be. In Genesis 1:26 the Godhead had the following conversation after they had created the heavens and the earth. “Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness.”

Here’s what is breathtaking about this, nobody can fully comprehend the beauty of God’s image. Those who wrote the Bible tried their best to describe Him, they used all kinds of metaphors to help us picture Him. But they still fall short because how do you put into words the magnificence of the One who created everything?

But according to Genesis, every person is created in the image of God. This makes every single person God’s image barer. This gives every single person dignity. This gives every single person significance. This makes every single person priceless and irreplaceable.

I cannot ignore recent events. I cannot look past the injustice that our brothers and sisters in Christ are experiencing because of the way they were created. If we choose to look past their suffering we miss out on an opportunity to see the beauty of each person created by God.

As believers in Jesus Christ we don’t get to pick and choose the people we think deserve to be saved. We don’t get to look at someone and say, “you’re not good enough for the Gospel because of your skin color, or because of your past, or where you’re from.”

I was just listening to an interview Beth Moore did with Charlie Dates. She made a very powerful statement. She said, “What have we turned Jesus into, that people would think He wouldn’t have called out this injustice and let it go, not saying a word to it? Do we know the Christ of the Gospels? Because we look at Him and we know that He was drawn to the marginalized and how His eye was out for the oppressed.”

If Jesus were walking around right now, He would not allow injustice to prevail. Jesus always saw into the hearts of those He was ministering to. He didn’t count their ethnicity, gender, social class, or status against them. What He saw was a soul ripe for the harvest.

He did this with the woman at the well, the woman caught in adultery, Matthew the tax collector, the leper, those who were blind, mute, and paralyzed. The people the everyone looked past, those were the ones He saw. And what He saw was a person who had been made in His image.

At this moment in history we must evaluate our own hearts. Allow the Holy Spirit to do an inventory on what dwells in there. Do we have any prejudices that would keep us from reaching out to someone who is different than us? Do we allow the differences we have with others keep us bound up in fear?

We can say that we don’t have any issues with anyone, that we love diversity. But just like the opinion I had towards red onions kept me from experiencing the beauty they had to offer, deep dark secret prejudices can keep us from experiencing the beauty of a soul that has been created in the image of God.

The souls that God is preparing for an eternal harvest may not look like what you think they should look like. They might be people from very different backgrounds. They might be people who have lived a very different life than you have. It’s not up to us to decide who deserves to be saved. That’s up to the Master Gardener and we doesn’t want any to parish.

Oh what a day it will be when we are welcomed into eternity and we are surrounded by our brothers and sisters in Christ. We won’t see our differences, for once we will see each other as we truly are. We will experience perfect unity, and peace. And the people who join us there will radiate the one for whom they were created. In that perfect Kingdom there won’t be inequality, injustice, discrimination, or depravity. We are called to live in that Kingdom right now. And until that glorious day when everything will be made right, let us be people who faithfully work in the fields we are called to. Let us be people who love selflessly, who work in unity, who see people as God’s image bearers and who don’t give up.

I can’t wait to see you on Sunday! I can’t wait to see what God will do over the next few months! It’s going to be beautiful!

Pray

The New International Version. (2011). (Ge 1:26). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.