SONGS OF HARVEST
Today's reading: Psalm 125-127

"Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy. They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest." Psalm 126:5-6 NLT

The little yellow kernels were placed in the dark brown earth. The tiny green sprouts appeared. The tall vibrant stalks reached for the sky. The ears developed, filling out as they grew.

And now?

We are awaiting the hum of the combines and semi-trucks, grain haulers and tractors. The songs of the harvest. The funeral dirge for things that have died.

Yes, that's what the corn has to do in order that it might be harvested--die.

And sometimes, as this psalmist writes, there are things inside us that must die in order that a harvest of righteousness be enjoyed.

Things that hurt.

Things that don't make sense.

Things that need to be released.

Things that we're completely comfortable with.

Things that require more energy, effort and time on our knees than we thought we had to give.

I think of the things I thought I had figured out and under control--and how He amazed me when I turned control over to Him. The things retaining my fingerprints from holding too tightly. The things I thought I could maneuver and manipulate. The things I didn't want to bother Him with. The things I'd just as soon not release to Him.

I think of the tears I've shed as I 'planted' those things into His care--and the songs of harvest I sang at the tops of my lungs as He did His work in them!

There is no blessed way of living, than the life of faith upon a covenant-keeping God - to know that we have no care, for he cares for us; that we need have no fear, except to fear him; that we need have no troubles, because we have cast our burdens upon the Lord, and are conscious that he will sustain us.            -- C. H. Spurgeon