I, John, looked and there was a white cloud,
and sitting on the cloud one who looked like a son of man,
with a gold crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.
Another angel came out of the temple,
crying out in a loud voice to the one sitting on the cloud,
“Use your sickle and reap the harvest,
for the time to reap has come,
because the earth’s harvest is fully ripe.”
So the one who was sitting on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth,
and the earth was harvested. (Rv 14:14-16)
It can be quite terrifying to think about being “harvested”. When we imagine the angel of God wielding the sickle to reap the harvest, we think about the amount of product thrown onto the threshing room floor where the chaff could be separated from the grain. The chaff, we hear, will be thrown into the fire.
Heaven and hell are realities. They are both destinations after a life lived here on earth. They are the final stop for a soul on its journey.
As we reflect upon the end of time, we think about our own eventual end and we are reminded that we must be found ready if we are going to be reaped and brought into the Kingdom of God.
God calls us to faithfulness and trust. God calls us to holiness of life. It does not happen all at once. It happens a step at a time, a decision at a time, a word at a time.
May your next steps, your next words, your next decisions count!
FAITH ACTION: As you pray, reflect upon the harvest hymn:
1. Come, ye thankful people, come,
Raise the song of harvest home!
All is safely gathered in,
Ere the winter storms begin;
God, our Maker, doth provide
For our wants to be supplied;
Come to God’s own temple, come;
Raise the song of harvest home!2. We ourselves are God’s own field,
Fruit unto his praise to yield;
Wheat and tares together sown
Unto joy or sorrow grown;
First the blade and then the ear,
Then the full corn shall appear;
Grant, O harvest Lord, that we
Wholesome grain and pure may be.3. For the Lord our God shall come,
And shall take the harvest home;
From His field shall in that day
All offences purge away,
Giving angels charge at last
In the fire the tares to cast;
But the fruitful ears to store
In the garner evermore.4. Then, thou Church triumphant come,
Raise the song of harvest home!
All be safely gathered in,
Free from sorrow, free from sin,
There, forever purified,
In God’s garner to abide;
Come, ten thousand angels, come,
Raise the glorious harvest home!