Harvest Time by Cindy Oriol

Growing up in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, we didn’t have anywhere to grow a vegetable garden or plant flower beds. The only grass we had was a few patches growing in between the bricks of our yard. My mom explained later it was actually weeds.

I remember going to the Farmers Market every Wednesday with my mom. That was a special time to bond with her. I saw large crates of beautiful, luscious fruits of all kinds. Because my siblings and I loved watermelon so much, mom always made sure to buy us one. It wasn’t a surprise to anyone to see us cut off a big slice, grab a salt shaker and go to our backyard. At the market, I was so amazed by all shapes, sizes, and radiant flowers. It was as if each one was calling me to come closer to smell their perfume fragrances. I had never seen so much beauty or that many flowers.

The first country fair I went to was very exciting. I had never been to one, and I actually did not know what to expect. My cousin took me to the Harvest Home Fair. When we first arrived, I saw other children riding the Ferris wheel. They were screaming with total joy. I had so much fun riding it.

When I was a child, my friends and I loved it after it rained so we could make mud pies. We formed the mud into different pieces of food and pretended we had taken a bite. Yummy! We took our time molding it through our fingers to make just the perfect piece. This reminds me of the scripture in Isaiah 64:8, “Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. I can just picture Jesus shaping and molding each one of us.” (NIV) As the clay hardens, sometimes, it will crack just like our lives will have cracks in it. But Jesus will always be there to pick up the broken pieces and mold us together again.

I remember my first try at stripping off tobacco leaves for a friend and how big and green they were. I recall how sweaty and sticky we were from the sap. We pulled the leaves from the stalks until we had a large handful. Then we tied the leaves with a heavy cord. Once we had our leaves tied together, other workers stuck the bundles with a spear. When we had enough tobacco on the sticks, we would drive to a nearby barn and the men would lay the spears across the rafters to finish curing. As I was walking towards the pickup truck, I heard this horrible crashing sound like something had cracked. I looked on the side of the truck and saw that our oldest man, who was 82, this was also his tobacco, had fallen off one of the rafters. He landed flat on his back and head.

I cupped my hands together and held his bloody head in my hands. My tears were pouring as I begged him, “Please do not die.” Later that day, we received great news from the hospital telling us he wasn’t seriously injured except for the back of his head. I knew the Lord was with all of us that day.

To be prepared for harvest time, you need many people to do their job, and it takes a lot of preparation to make bold decisions at all times. If you do not have the workers, you can not finish the job correctly.

There is another way to harvest, and that is for Jesus. He tells us in Matthew 9:37 that the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. He needs us to be His workers. We are His hands and feet while we are still on this earth. He is calling upon his workers to be just as plentiful as the harvest. But are we really listening and obeying His call? Let us be bold and stand up for Jesus. Look at what He has done for us by taking away our sins as He was nailed to the cross. Come together and share the Good News with everyone that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Him. (John 14:6)

There are so many people scattered on this earth who have never even heard of Jesus. Let us bring the gospel to them.

Cindy Oriol