The End Result

"Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few"- Matthew 9:37 (NIV).

In the 1940's, Little Golden Books published and popularized a Russian folk story called The Little Red Hen. To summarize, a mother hen found a grain of wheat, planted it, harvested the wheat, threshed and milled the wheat, and then baked some lovely warm bread. At each process in the bread's creation she asked other barn animals who was willing to help her, and they each declined with a myriad of excuses, until the last question of who was willing to help her eat the bread. Each barn animal was quick to say they would help, but the little red hen told the lazy barn animals they couldn't enjoy the warm bread because they had not helped her in the process. Though not stated in the book this is Biblical: "The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat" (2 Thessalonians 3:10). Moral of the story: Those who do not contribute do not deserve to enjoy the end result. Heaven is our end result. Jesus is asking who is willing to help with His harvest. The harvest is huge, but few workers are showing up and the sad reality is they won't be enjoying the end result. Are you willing?