Autumn has arrived dressed in gold and lavender. Aster blossoms explode in tiny, purple fireworks. Black-Eyed Susan’s chocolate-colored heads droop under clear, azure skies.

Fall is here. The last red raspberries of the year plump up, sweet and juicy. Red apples hang heavy and low, warmed by the October sunshine.

The long, growing days of summer have faded. The cicadas’ raspy love song has stilled. The afternoon sun, now more smolder than blaze, no longer clears the top of the ancient cottonwood tree.

The time for harvest has come. The last hay bales of the year–dried summer days–sit huge and round, waiting to fuel bovine, winter dreams.

Dust roils up from the bean head as the combine harvests soybeans, and tractors pull wagons filled to nearly overflowing.

Farmers must harvest many acres in the next weeks in the days between rains, in the hours before the dew condenses, making the stalks tough and difficult to combine.

Jesus understood harvest time. He recognized the size of the task, how much grain needed to be gathered in and how few there were to do it. Right after he had talked with the Samaritan woman at the well, He spoke to His disciples about the harvest of souls.

I’m telling you to open your eyes and take a good look at what’s right in front of you. These Samaritan fields are ripe. It’s harvest time!   John 4:35   MSG

Is God calling me to help with the harvest of souls? Where? How?

Is it in a place or among a people I didn’t think would be receptive to the Gospel?

“What a huge harvest!” he said to his disciples. “How few workers! On your knees and pray for harvest hands!”  Matthew 9:37,38   MSG

Have I prayed for more people to help with the harvest? Have I prayed for those who already are?

Do you remember what happened in Samaria after Jesus talked with the woman at the well?

The spiritual harvest was a bin-buster, full and overflowing!

Many of the Samaritans from that village committed themselves to him because of the woman’s witness: ‘He knew all about the things I did. He knows me inside and out!’

They asked him to stay on, so Jesus stayed two days. A lot more people entrusted their lives to him when they heard what he had to say. They said to the woman, ‘We’re no longer taking this on your say-so. We’ve heard it for ourselves and know it for sure. He’s the Savior of the world!‘   John 4:39-42   MSG