If you don’t work; you will not eat!
I am sure each if you have heard the story of the Little Red Hen. It is a childhood classic, and it teaches an important lesson about life. For those of you who recognize the title but don’t remember the contents of the story, I will give you a brief synopsis.
Once upon a time there was a little red hen who knew it was time to plant the wheat. She ask her barnyard friends to help and they all came up with various excuses on why they could not help, so she planted it by herself. As the wheat grew, she needed to water the crop, again no one would help her with the task. When the wheat ripened she ask for help to harvest it,but once again many excuses were made not to help. She had to carry the heavy wheat alone to the mill and have it ground into flour. No one would help her in her labor no matter how much she pleaded her case. Upon taking the flour home she made beautiful loaves of bread. When they smelled the wonderful aroma of the baking of the bread, all the barnyard friends came to taste the fruit of her labor, but it was too late.
This story could have been inspired by the Bible. Because in the Bible it tells us that we must plant the seeds of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It also tells us that we must care for the young seedlings, and tend them like the Little Red Hen did when she watered her young crop. In the Little Red Hen’s story there was a time to sow, and a time to reap, a time to grind the wheat into flour, and a time to bake the bread. The Little Ren Hen produced a great harvest, but she could not find the laborers she needed to harvest all the crop.
Why her friends didn’t help her isn’t really a mystery. Their excuses were flimsy at best thinking they had all the time in the world to prepare for the feast. But there is no perfect time in life, in fact there is very little time for us to prepare for the final banquet. It was not beneath the Little Red Hen to go out and do the work. She knew that her labor would not be in vain and there would be a great reward for doing what was required.
The great commission tells us to go out preaching and teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It also tells us not to be ashamed of doing that work. Some people foolishly think that spending their 45 minutes in church on Sunday is somehow doing the work of the Lord. They have been clearly misinformed about what is required of every Christian. We are all to be like the Little Red Hen. We are to go out and plant seed, nurture its growth, and be ready for the harvest that is coming. In the book of Matthew we are reminded: And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. There is consequence for our actions or lack thereof, will you be able to sit down at the banquet table of Christ and enjoy the fruit of your labor?Salvation is a gift, but faith without works is dead.
As parents it is important for us to teach our children what it means to be workers for Christ. The Bible tells us that the harvest is great but the laborers are few, and we as Christian parents need to raise laborers for Christ. The Bible can be used as the Christian’s Farmer’s Almanac, explaining each step of the process from acknowledging we are all sinners, accepting the redemption through the blood, being baptized in Jesus name, and be harvested to heaven when we die.
We as authors know that there is an order in writing a book. There is a beginning, a middle, and then ending. Just as in life we are born, we live our lives, and we die. Just as in the works we write the ending depends on what happens in the middle. What kind of ending are you promised?
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
I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.
John 9:4
Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;
Matthew 9:37
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
I Corinthians 15:58
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
Isaiah 55:11
For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.
II Thessalonians 3:10