Harvest Time's Ending

Harvest Time's Ending

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There's a stretch of nights in the fall when the moon is absolutely incredible! It's usually in October. That's harvest time for farmers. And when it's full moon time, you can see this huge, brilliant, yellowish moon rising in the eastern sky. It just makes you stop and almost catch your breath. I think it was in the days before electricity that farmers started calling it a "harvest moon." With so much depending on the harvest and so little time to bring it in, every hour had to count. And the days never seemed quite long enough to get it all in. So a bright full moon was more than just a beautiful view...it meant something much more important. With that extra light, God was giving them a little more time to harvest!

It could be that you and I are living right now in the light of a spiritual harvest moon - to bring to Jesus some of the lives around us that He died to rescue. Maybe that's why He's giving you a little more time.

There's a powerful illustration of this in the Word of God in Luke 13:6-9. "Then (Jesus) told this parable: 'A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?' 'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.'"

I wonder how many of our lives this parable is describing? Jesus comes looking for some fruit from a believer's life, especially in the form of some people you've introduced to Him. He finds none. Why should He leave us here any longer, just soaking up the nutrients in our spiritual soil? But the answer comes, "Give him/give her a little more time to make a difference." By virtue of the fact that you and I are still here, Jesus has decided to let us have at least a little more time to take some people to heaven with us.

I'll tell you, you feel it deeply when the time for you to bring someone home runs out - when harvest time is over. I heard a story of a girl who had a friend named Cathy. One morning, in college, the girl remembered waking up to a news story that mentioned her friend, Cathy's name. The night before, a gunman had walked into the Student Union at the university that Cathy attended, pulled out a gun, and he shot her in cold blood. Suddenly, there was no more chances to tell Cathy about how she could go to heaven. The girl sadly recalled they had talked about everything except Jesus! She had slept through the harvest, and time had run out.

That's why the Bible says that when it comes to talking about Jesus, "Make the most of every opportunity" (Colossians 4:5). This spiritual harvest business is urgent stuff. Harvest always is. You know the opportunity doesn't last long, you drop everything to bring it in, and if you wait, you miss it. God wants us to feel that kind of urgency about telling the people we know about His Son Who loved them enough to die for them. We never know when their time or our time will run out.

So, like the farmer toiling feverishly in the extended light of a harvest moon, God has given you a little more time to bring in someone that His Son died for. Don't keep putting it off. Don't let your life be so full of un-eternal stuff that you miss the mission that matters most. Someone you know desperately needs Jesus, and Jesus has given you a little more time to bring them home...but harvest time is ending.