Lord of the Harvest

The wheat grows side by side
with the tares
and side by side with the wheat.

Sometimes they seem a single plant
and sometimes they barely meet.

What seeds are sown are sometimes known;
Sometimes seeds blow with the breeze.

Sometimes the gardener is worn
to the bone,
and sometimes she’s on her knees

tending the tender shoots and stems,
blowing away the chaff.

Sometimes she wanders
the rows alone,
sometimes on the Lord’s behalf.

Sometimes she reaps just
what she has sown.
Sometimes the weeds appear.

The difference between the wheat
and the tares
is often a little unclear.

But the Lord of the Harvest
holds each in His Hands,
along with the prints of the nails.

And blessed with His holy
touches of Grace
the wheat, even tattered, prevails.

God bless the gardener who gently tends,
and God bless the weary,
the strangers, and friends

who comb through the golden tresses of wheat
and find what is sacred,
Celestial,
and sweet.

-swestenskow 4/3/08