FMF: Summer

Hands that don’t want to work make you poor.
But hands that work hard bring wealth to you.
A child who gathers crops in summer is wise.
But a child who sleeps at harvest time brings shame.
(Proverbs 10:4-5, NIRV)

"What do you plan to do this summer?" she asked me.

"As little as possible," I told her with a laugh.

And it was true. After a semester of working two part time jobs and taking a near-full load of classes, I needed a little time to rest and prepare for the fall. For many of us, not just students, Summer is the time we cherish most because we are able to do just that.

However, in agriculutural societies, like the one in which the Biblical writer of Proverbs lived, summer was a time of work. You can only gather crops when the crops are ready. They don't wait for you to want to work, and so your schedule revolves around the harvest's schedule.

There's a line from a hymn I sometimes find myself singing: "Bringing in the sheaves, // Bringing in the sheaves, // We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves."

(Sheaves, in case you do not know, are bundles of grain. I had to look it up too.)

In my spiritual life, there are some things that can only happen at certain times. Perhaps I will never encounter another person or have the same opportunity to extend God's grace in a situation.

As God's children, it is wise to work when the harvest is available.

The only question that remains is will we rejoice as we bring in the sheaves?

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This post is a prompt from Five Minute Friday

and was written in approximately five minutes.

For more information, visit fiveminutefriday.com.

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