Lessons From a Hay Harvest

There is something immensely gratifying about looking at a harvest of hay.  As those big round bales start filling up what was a field filled with grass, there is a feeling of un-comparable completion which comes forth from some deep place in the spirit.   The hay bales scattered across the field were once just a hope that sprang forth from looking at the brown dead looking grass of winter.  The greening of Spring came and then the spraying, the fertilizing, the looking for rain, and the hoping.  All along the journey from then to now, there was a vision of the harvest.  Today the field is full of the fruit of the dirt and the fruit of human labor.

 

It is a gift often not experienced by those in ministry, or those who seek to be in service to the Christ.  At the end of the day, sometimes at the end of a much longer period than a day, there is often no signs which indicate that the labor being offered for Christ is having any results.  Many a person has become discouraged because there was no sign that what was being done for Christ was reaping a harvest in anyone's life.  Perhaps, many of us have experienced this in our prayer life more than anyplace else.  But, the truth remains that those in ministry, or in service to Christ, often go a long time before seeing something happening which is viewed as a result of faithful labor.

 

Such is the nature of following after Jesus.  It seems that there are more among us who are plodders instead of miracle workers.  While it is easy to lose sight of the value of doing the routine mundane things of the day, this is exactly where so much of what God is doing in the world happens.  What He is doing through us is often invisible to our own eyes although it may be like a trumpet sounding in the heart of someone who is touched by what we offer.  Whatever we give to Christ is never wasted.  When we seek to do something in His name, we can count on it making a difference.