Introduction

I love words.  Words have power and meaning and give life.  Words can also corrupt, demean and kill.  As I was pondering the meaning of words and what they mean to my life, I researched the meaning of my name, Teresa.  There are derivations in Greek, Spanish and English and they all mean the same thing:  harvester or to reap.  These two, seldom used words in modern society stirred my curiosity.  To harvest or reap there must first be a planting.  Planting requires seeds or some form of viable plant material which will reproduce the plant it came from.  Once seeds are planted, time passes, the sun shines, the rain waters the crop…then it is time to reap what was sown.  It is time to harvest!

Harvest time is a joyous time in the farm community.  Harvest is the reward for all the preparation and hard work placed to raise the crops to feed their family, their animals and to sustain their community.  A good harvest meant the farm families would have food to eat through the winter.  When spring comes, it would be time to plant again and repeat the process of growth.  Harvest time is a concept lost on most people in our current society.  We purchase our food already grown and prepared for us to consume at the grocery stores or markets.  We have little knowledge of where our food actually came from or how it is provided to us.

We do not realize how many hands it takes to sustain us in the way we have become accustomed.  In my lifetime I have witnessed the farm life on a small scale.  We farmed to provide food for our family.  Along with the earth providing food for us, we also had food to share with others.  The work of our hands gave us enough to share with others.  I cannot remember a time when there wasn’t something to share with a neighbor or guest.  It was our way of blessing someone else with the blessings we had worked for and received from the harvest.

I see this way of life as living with open hands.  To be open-handed is to be very generous.  What I have is yours, you only need ask.  You may be thinking about a certain person in your life who lives like this.  They are big-hearted, charitable, unselfish and benevolent person in your family circle or at church.  You wonder how they have the ability to give so freely to others.  How can they have the income or resources to share what they have with others?  This person has made a choice to live with open hands to test the theory proposed in the Bible.  It is promised in the Scriptures that whatever is given in Jesus’ name will not be in vain (Isaiah 55).

If you were able to think of a person who lives with open hands, you were probably also able to think of a person who lives with closed fists.  A closed fist holds on to whatever is inside.  A closed fist lashes out in anger and is quick to judge when offended.  Just as the open-handed person was generous, a close-fisted person is selfish, only providing for themselves.  The Scriptures speak to the outcome of this type of person also.  Proverbs 11:24 states that the person who withholds good things from others will suffer want (will never have enough).  Solomon also tells us that is we are generous to the poor, the Lord will repay our kindness (Proverbs 19:17).

I challenge you today to apply the words of 1 John 3:17-18, “But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.”  Will you sow seeds of kindness so that you may also reap/harvest when the time comes?  Someone out there needs you to love them today.

Leave me a comment and let’s continue this conversation.

Be Blessed,

Teresa

(Harvester, reporting for duty)