Spring’s Hopeblohlog

Spring is glorious in Maine. Flowering shrubs and trees beautify formal landscapes and gardens. Wild cherry and crab apple blossoms line roadsides, blueberry blossoms flood fields, and apple orchards show off their pinks and whites. The smells of fresh beauty are everywhere. But the farmer’s mind quickly turns to thoughts of the harvest heralded by these wonders. A good spring blooming could mean a grand harvest, but it isn’t a promise. What appears to be a great opportunity may lose it potential or even end in a disaster because of limited growing time, too much or too little rain, mildew, freezes, infestations, and poor pollination.

Life mirrors those possibilities. Our early bloom is susceptible to blight. Our actions and inactions have consequences. We will reap what we sow. We are time-limited people and our outcomes are subject to interferences and disruptions.

Jesus knew that all life, his included, is fragile, brief, and threatened by evil. Because his redemptive message of forgiveness and transformation is life saving, he approached his ministry with focus, vigorous intention, and urgency as he brought God’s kingdom to lost, needy people. On one occasion, he appointed seventy-two followers to precede him and to prepare people for upcoming visits; he urged them on with the metaphor that “The harvest is plentiful…” (Luke 10:1-2)

Millions of people world wide have responded to and continue to receive Jesus’ redemptive message of forgiveness and of restoration to a relationship with God through faith. They are part of that “plentiful” harvest which was sowed in an isolated, remote corner of the world by a few disciples. That image powerfully testifies to the vital need for Jesus in life and also confirms another ancient truth. Moses repeatedly reminded Israel to keep alive the memory of God’s empowering presence by telling succeeding generations about His wonders and how He cared for those who followed Him by faith. That thoughtful advice still holds. Whether lived or spoken, the values, the attitudes, the truths we model and teach today will bare future fruit even in generations which we may never live to see.

God’s grand plan holds an amazing eternal hope, but it is couched in gravity. When the people of Judah realized that they had ignored God and that the moment for their salvation from enemies had passed because God had not intervened and rescued them, the prophet Jeremiah recorded their lament: “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” (Jeremiah 8:20) We face the same challenge today because distractions take us from the awareness that we need God and that there is an urgency about knowing and investigating Jesus’ intervention for our salvation which with grace and gratitude can grow into the sowing and reaping of God’s love, peace, humility, sensitivity, mercy, compassion and righteousness for generations to come.(Matthew 5:3-12) What better harvest could there be?