The Harvest

(Thanksgiving, Part 1)

The apostle Paul couldn’t be any clearer. “Don’t be misled”, he writes in no uncertain terms, “you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant” (Galatians 6:7). For better and worse, this is how God intended our world to work. Our choices move us to action, and our actions have consequences. When they bear good results, we are delighted. When the fruits are rotten, and sooner or later they always are when selfishness is our motivation, we would rather avoid them all together. Yet, the apostle is clear. We are free to choose, but we are not free from the consequences of our choices. We wouldn’t have it any other way when the consequences are good. We would happily change God’s justice when the consequences are bad.

Now, let’s be honest. While I believe Paul is by no means lying, I am thankful that there is more to the story. The full harvest of my selfishness would be the end of me. Death would take hold of my relationships, my finances, my faith and my health; sooner or later destroying everything.

But God, being the good and loving Sower that He is, plants something more on my life. “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. 9 He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; 10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. 11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; 12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:8-12). Did you catch it? “He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.” Simply put, God does attach us forever to our sin. Neither does He give us what our choices and actions deserve. In even simpler words, we could simply say: grace. The Sower plants grace in our field, and because of him, we are still here. Alive. Loving and being loved. Learning, growing and making the best of every day for His glory.

Without Jesus, we would be crushed by our own harvest of death.

With Jesus, we harvest unmerited grace that gives us an infinity of reasons to be thankful for.