Fall. The joys of autumn. Cooler temperatures, shorter days. The year’s final harvest.
When we lived in the Northwest, each Fall there would always be a field trip to the pumpkin patch. There was an area close to town called Green Bluff and that was the place to go.
We loaded up in the school buses; teachers, students, parent helpers, and headed up the hill for a day in the country. When we arrived at the designated farm everyone got onto a wagon lined with hay bales and a tractor would pull the wagon out to the field of pumpkins where the kids could pick out their own pumpkin to take home.
It was a wonderful day; laughing children, happy teachers, cool air and a cup of hot apple cider before heading back. What a treat!
But it was called a pumpkin patch because the farmer had planted pumpkins. Well, of course. That’s what you would expect, right? If you plant pumpkin seeds you expect pumpkins, not turnips or zucchini or cabbage or spaghetti squash – no, pumpkins. Can you image how shocked the farmer would be if he went out and found that there were potatoes coming up where he planted pumpkins?
Well naturally we know that couldn’t happen. Then why do we think it should be any other way in the other areas of our life?
We burn the candle at both ends. We get very little sleep, don’t drink enough water, aren’t eating right and we end up stressed out, overly tired and sick. But we seem to be surprised when that happens.
Or how about this? We are cranky, rude, sarcastic, unsympathetic and unconcerned about those around us yet we are surprised when we receive the same treatment. Why should that be shocking? If we plant the negative things of life, they are going to grow.
Jesus compared God’s word to seed. He said if we (our hearts) are good ground, the seeds will root, grow and produce a harvest.
It’s a fact of nature and it’s a spiritual principle as well.
“Make no mistake about this: You can never make a fool out of God. Whatever you plant is what you’ll harvest. 8 If you plant in the soil of your corrupt nature, you will harvest destruction. But if you plant in the soil of your spiritual nature, you will harvest everlasting life. 9 We can’t allow ourselves to get tired of living the right way. Certainly, each of us will receive everlasting life at the proper time, if we don’t give up. 10 Whenever we have the opportunity, we have to do what is good for everyone, especially for the family of believers.” Galatians 6:7-10 GW
What we plant in our lives is our choice. Just like the farmer, he wants a crop of pumpkins so he plants pumpkin seeds. He will have to go out occasionally and pull some weeds that pop up but he knows what his harvest will be because he’s confident of the seeds he put in the earth.
Now we all have had times that some of the seeds we’ve planted weren’t good ones. What we need to do about those is pray for crop failure. We ask the Lord to help those seeds die before they sprout and if they should come up we take a hoe and chop them out.
Here’s verse 9 from the King James Version:
“ And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”
Harvest is hard work but well worth it.
Not only did the school kids have field trips to the pumpkin patch but those farmers made an event out of harvest. There were other crops too; corn, apples, peaches. So every weekend for several weeks they would open their farms to the folks from town. There would be hay rides, a corn maze, cider, fresh pies – apple and pumpkin. This was harvest and it was fun.
Just think, if we plant the right seeds we can expect a bumper crop. A crop that we can share with friends, family and others.