By Doug Creamer
A Second Harvest
How are you holding up with all this heat? Maybe by the time you read my column the heat wave will have broken. It’s so hot! Where I live, we have had very little rain to help trees, plants, and gardens. I have been watering regularly trying to keep everything alive. It’s been an uphill battle.
I looked out the window at the vegetable garden and realized that I had an empty bed. I had harvested my potatoes – a good crop this year – and that space was available to plant. I didn’t want to go out and do it in the heat. BUT I do want a fall harvest. The only way to get a fall harvest is to plant things now. I made myself go out and get the bed ready for planting one evening and then went out another evening and planted some seeds.
Another area of the garden will finish up in a couple of weeks and I am planning what I will put in that spot, too. Most people work to get their first tomatoes in by the 4th of July, but I was running late with my garden this year. I am hoping for my first tomato soon. I have eaten a few cherry tomatoes, but I can’t wait for a real one. I have enjoyed some tomatoes from a local farmer, but there is nothing like growing your own.
We’ve had some successes and struggles with the garden this year. I am hoping for a second harvest. It is hard to imagine that the first frost will arrive in about 12 weeks, especially when we will probably hit 100 today. Picking the right vegetables and getting them started soon is critical if I want to get more from my garden.
Last year we had a big harvest of green beans and butter beans in the fall. This year I haven’t had a green bean yet. Last year I got some late cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and squash. I am going to keep trying, keep pushing my luck against Mother Nature. It seems our first frost has been running later and later the last few years, so I am hopeful that I will get a harvest this year, too. I remember having to take some sheets out to cover things last year to protect my vegetables from frost.
A second harvest requires hot, sweaty work. I have been sharing my harvest with the critters, but I believe I have gotten a bigger portion this year. In order to continue our harvest into the fall, I have to get out there in the heat and do the necessary work of cleaning out the weeds, preparing the seed bed, and planting the seeds.
If we want to see the harvest of souls, it is going to require the same type of effort. Think of the world or those who have no relationship with God as an untamed garden bed. Someone has to clear out the weeds. Many people live in the world and pay no attention to spiritual matters. Their guide is worldly standards. Their measure of success comes from the value of the bank account. They look to social media for approval. These weeds need to be cleared away. We have to help them see their need for God and biblical standards.
We help to prepare their hearts by expressing God’s love for them. We help them see that God has a purpose and a plan for their lives. We also help them see the error of their ways. But more than our words, we live our lives in front of them as an example. We show them by our choices, faith, and hope that there is a better way to live their lives. Once their hearts are ready, we can share the love of Jesus with them.
Do you have family, friends, and neighbors who are lost and in need of a savior? I want to encourage you to ask God to help you be a weed puller, soil prepper, seed planter, the one who waters, or the one who harvests the lost soul. He will show you how. He can and will use you to share your faith in Christ with them. We never know how much time we have here on earth, but when that time is up we will have to stand before God. Make yourself available to share the Good News. The goal is make a way for them to hear what we all want to hear, “Well done my good and faithful servant. Enter your master’s rest.” Pray and do what he tells you.
Contact Doug Creamer at PO Box 777, Faith, NC 28041or doug@dougcreamer.com
