"Almost Missed It"

"Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest." John 4:35

One day Jesus told His disciples that He needed to go to Samaria. When they got there, the disciples went into the city to buy meat. While they were gone Jesus sat at a well and had a conversation with a woman of Samaria. As a result of their conversation this woman accepted Jesus as the Messiah who was to come. She then left her water pots and went to the city to tell others. The disciples came back with the food. Upon encouraging Him to eat, He replied that He had meat to eat that they knew not of. They began to question and wonder if someone had brought Him something to eat already. He corrected them and told them that His meat was to do the will of the Father and finish His work. Then Jesus said to them, "Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest." 

 

What was this meat? To do the will of the Father and finish His work. What was the will and work? To seek and to save that which was lost. His meat was spiritual in nature and He was fulfilling it. The disciples were taking care of natural things-- buying food. Jesus said to them to lift up their eyes because the harvest is already white and needs picking. When they physically looked around them, they saw a whole city coming to Jesus. The harvest was right there in front of them but they didn't see it. They almost missed it because they were focused on natural things- food. They were focused on trying to figure out where Jesus had already gotten food. They were in the middle of the harvest field and didn't even realize it. They were blinded spiritually by the physical.

 

I wonder if we aren't like those disciples? There is a harvest field around us, there are souls that are "ripe" waiting to be "picked", God is moving in our midst and we are focused on natural things. Are we more concerned with trying to figure out natural events that are occurring around us than we are with seeing what is happening spiritually? Are we missing what is spiritually taking place because we are more concerned with physical things? Has the physical blinded us to the spiritual? 

 

The disciples almost missed one of the greatest works of God-- the salvation of a whole city-- because they were concerned about natural things. Are we missing what the Lord is doing in our midst because we are more concerned as well with natural things?

 

Have a great day. Are natural things blinding us from seeing what is happening spiritually right in front of our eyes?

 

For further reading:

John 4