White for Harvest

The farmers here in the Jackson Purchase have begun to harvest the wheat that has been ripening in the fields. The fields are white for harvest and yesterday the farmers were taking advantage of the good weather. In a few days all will remain will be the stubble and the gleanings on the edge of the fields that the combines missed.

I lived in farm country in Hertfordshire and Suffolk in England as a boy. Fields of ripening barley, oats, and wheat were very much a part of my childhood.

The beginning of the wheat harvest not only evokes memories from my childhood but also brings to mind passages of Scripture like this passage from the Old Testament, from the Book of Leviticus. "And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, nor shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the LORD your God" (Leviticus 23:22 ESV)

The Old Testament is very clear that charity to others is a part of our moral duty. By forbidding the reaping of the fields to their very corners, provision was made for the poor and the sojourner among the people of Israel—for those who owned no land of their own. They had the right to gather any wheat or barley left by the reapers.

I am thankful to be spending this season of my life in Western Kentucky farm country, as I am for having spent my childhood in Hertfordshire and Suffolk farm country. I am thankful to have this annual reminder that another crop is whitening in the fields, ripe for harvest, and that not only must we pray for the Lord of Harvest to send more labourers into the harvest but also like the prophet Isaiah, when we hear God’s call for more labourers, our response must be, “Here I am. Send me.”